The Emerald Life
by HAYDENpfan
Summary: A story about a girl named Alex. As one of the prophecied, and as a half-blood, she needs to go on a quest to find somone. What she finds is not what she expects, and the four prophecied children lives are put in danger. Please read and review!Chap. 6 up!
1. Dont you love huge snakes?

**Hope you all enjoy this brand new hopefully wonderful story! Pity my ranting and off you go to read my story! Off you go...but before you do I have somthing compleatly heartbreaking to say:**

**Disclamier:Sadly I am not Rick Riordan, thus resulting in a compleate breakdown because I do not own any of the Percy Jackson charectors. Mine on the other hand...**

"We have located one of them, my lord." the boy with sandy blond hair said to a golden sarcoughagus. "The leader. We have sent a few out to get her, and orders are to bring her back unharmed. If we can get her on our side, the other two are sure to follow."

"Good...good..." An evil voice laughed. "Soon all will be ours! Now go with the ones you have sent. I want to make sure the plan is followed through..."

I breathed in the nice fresh air of the empty trails. It was Central Park, and I had come at a good time, so I could think. I should probobly explain myself a little. My name is Alex DeClaire. I was from an orphanage, but since I was thirteen, they let me leave to go riding by myself. I had glossy brown hair, that fell past my shoulders about two inches. Somtimes it was curly, others it was straight. Today it happened to be curly. The ladys at the orphanage said the my hair brought out my deep green eyes. They also told me a little about myself.

When I was a baby, my mother had dropped me off at the orphanage. She just told them that I was special to her, and to always have these two necklaces on. One was a silver dog tag with my name and information on it, and the other...I couldnt explain it. It was beautiful. It was a silver moon on one side and the sun on the other. In between them was a beautiful emerald, that shone almost all of the time.

My favriote things to do were sing, dance, ride horses, practice archery, and read. I was dyslexic and had ADHD, but reading was my thing. My simple six word qoute, "The world would end without books." Right now I was riding a chesnut brown arabian horse named Millie. She was my favriote horse to ride while I was here, and she greated me whenever she saw me by stamping her hoof and neighing, as if she was saying, "Do you know how longs its been since I last saw you?". I always greeted her by giving her a carrot and stroking her mane.

I looked at the lush trees around me. There werent many tree's in New York, and this was my favriote place to be. It was a almost deserted trail, but Millie and I saw it a lot. We came into the regular clearing, a big round space with a fountain in the middle, a few benches, and bathrooms. I saw that one of the benches was occupied by a girl with curly blond hair and grey eyes and a girl with spiky black hair with electric blue eyes. Standing behind them was a boy with black hair and green eyes, and in front of the bench was an old man in a weelchair. I looked down at the blue jeans and white tank top I was wearing. It was at least six a.m. I wasnt expecting anyone to be here. At least my hair and face was decent.

Millie walked toward the people. I pulled back on the reins but she didnt listen to me.

That was rare.

She walked over to the boy and nudged his head with her nose. The four people turned to face me.

"Im sorry, I dont know what got into Millie. She usaully listens to me, but today she seems a little off." I apologized. The boy stared at my face but didnt say a word.

The girl with black hair said, "Dont ming our friend there. He cant talk to any girl. And horses are kinda drawn to him for some odd reason." she said smiling.

"Oh." I said smiling too. "Im Alex DeClaire."

"Im Thalia, thats Annabeth, Percy, and Mr. Brunner." Thalia said pointing to everyone. I jumped off Millie and shook their hands. Mr. Brunner started to say somthing then stopped, catching sight of my necklace.

"Is that...is that an emerald?" he asked me.

"Yes it is." A voice said behind me. A boy with sandy blond hair and a long scar that ran across his face was standing at the entrance to the trail, with his arm folded across his chest. A few large black dogs with sharp teeth stood behind him. They were growling and had sneers across their face.

Annabeth and Thalia stood up drawing...swords?! I stepped closer to Millie and held on to her reins tightly. Percy uncapped a pen that turned into a sword and Mr.Brunner turned into a centaur.

Thats it. No more hot chocolate for breakfast. I officialy have lost it.

"What do you want Luke?" Thalia growled.

"Just let me take the girl, and no one will get hurt." the sandy haired boy said.

Nice. I hoped they werent talking about me.

"I'll just leave...and go back to bed." I said, getting ready to get on Millie's saddle.

"No you wont." Mr. Brunner said. I was getting bossed around by a horse man.

"You have a tail and four hooves. I definitly need to stop having hot chocolate for breakfast." I stated.

"We'll explain later. Right now, just stay here." Thalia said. I got on Millie's saddle.

"Are you nuts?! You all have swords, hooves, or dogs with very sharp teeth! Im leavin!" I said and nudged Millie into a trot on the exit across the clearing from Luke and the dogs.

"I wouldnt do that if I were you!" Luke warned.

"And why not?" I asked harshly.

"Because there are snakes over there." he smirked.

I stopped Millie in her tracks and turned aound in the saddle. "Snakes? There are...snakes over here?" I repeated. I was petrified of snakes. So was Millie. Once we had seen one slithering across our path, and cantered all the way back to Millie's stall. We almost hit a gait when we saw it.

"On second though, I'll stay here." I said and had Millie walk back over to Thalia's side.

Thalia stepped in front of Millie. "And Alex's staying here with us." she said.

I was compleatly confused but decided not to ask any questions.

"I have strict orders not to come back without the girl." Luke said like it was a peice of cake.

"Aw shame you wont be able to go back." Percy said.

"Luke, we will let you go unharmed, if you leave now." Mr. Brunner said.

I really needed to hit my head and then see what I could then.

Luke said somthing in greek, and three large snakes came slithering out of the exit I tried to take. Millie readed up and I gasped, struggleing to hold on to her.

"Alex!" Annabeth said as Millie stomped on the ground and reared up again. This time I couldnt hold on and fell off. I saw Percy trying to calm Millie down, and I layed still for a moment, my vision blurring. I saw Thalia kneel down beside me as Annabeth fought snakes, Mr. Brunner fought the dogs, and Percy faught Luke. I sat up and motioned for Thalia to help with the fight. She nodded and help Annabeth kill the snakes.

No one watched as I ran away from the clearing into the forest. I ran beside the trail untill I came to a busy street. From there I ran back to the orphanage, just in time for lunch.


	2. Computer games have bad graphics

**Hope everyone enjoyed the last chapter. By the way, after the evil laughing thing, there was supposed to be a line. Apparetntly, that line did not show. So I will try somthing else this time. AND, in the last chapter, at the beginning it was suposed to be, "The other three will come." Just lettin ya know. MARS PICKLES! I love saying that!**

I looked at myself in the mirror. It was the day after my, "hallucination" and Cassie, a eighteen year-old girl said that I needed to go shopping to get my mind of things. I wasnt much for shopping, but a grape slushie and wandering the malls couldnt be bad. Since Cassie helped out at the orphanage, she gave me some money because she couldnt come with me but she had to work.

She had said I couldnt leave without looking, "decent." So now, I was modeling some green shorts, and a white and green layered tank top, with a brown braclet and tennis shoes. Once agin my hair was curly, but this time I put it in a ponytail.

"Ok, you can go now." Cassie said, waving her french manicured hand. I practicly ran out of the house, my two necklaces bouncing around. I ran all the way to our nearby mall, thats what the tennis shoes were for, right? and went inside. First I got a grape slushie, the top on my priority list. Then I spotted a bookstore across the hall and practiclly ran to it.

Bookstores call my name. All the time.

I wandered around the huge store for a little bit then saw a book called _Inkheart_. I had read that book at least six billion and seven times. Long number.

I picked it up. This one had a red cover with- Uh oh.

Uh oh as in I should scream and run. But that would attract more attention to the person I was face to face with.

Annabeth.

"Alex?" she said. I smiled the dashed out of the store, dropping the book before I left. I may be in a hurry but I am not a theif.

I saw Annabeth run into the electronics store next to the book store. I didnt know that was there!

I had to restrain myself from going inside the store.

I dumped the slushie into the trash next to me and walked into the electronics store, deciding that I would be smart enough to stay low.

Suddenly, a hand gripped my shoulder. I turned around to see Thalia just entering the store.

So much for staying low. I was led to the back of the store where Annabeth was franticly trying to tell Chiron she had seen me, and Percy was looking at a computer game.

"I played that game once at an arcade. Bad graphics." I said.

Percy nodded and put the game back on the shelf then did a double take.

I smiled at Chiron. "Hi."

They all seemed a little taken aback that I was not very...um...we'll go with rude.

"What happened to you yesterday? We though Luke got you!" Thalia asked me.

"Well, I figured that I was going crazy and I went back to the ophanage."

Just then I saw Cassie. She was compleatly out of breath, and was franticly scanned the store. When she saw me she rushed over.

"Alex...theres...some...people," thats all she got out.

"Cassie, what?" I said a little annoyed.

"Somone wants to adopt you!" she said.

At first I was a little confused. Then it sank in. "Are you serius?" I asked disbeliefingly.

Cassie grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. Before I left Annabeth followed me and handed me a peice of paper. "If you ever get in trouble, go there!" she said, then Cassie pulled me out of the mall.

I stuffed the paper in my pocket and ran all the way back to the orphanage. Cassie was behind me. On our way to the "interveiw" room, Cassie fluffed my hair why would she do that? Its in a ponytail dork! and I paused outside the room.

I had been in there only once or twice and the parents had been duds. The room had some chairs and a couch. Usaully with the older kids, you could just go in there by yourself. I took a deep breath and walked in the room.

A pretty woman with long curly blond hair and very bright blue eyes was sitting net to a man with green eyes and blond hair. The looked about in their twenties or lower thirties. I took a seat across from them.

"Hi, im Alex DeClaire." I said and shook the peoples hands.

"Im Paula and this is my husband Ben." the woman said.

"Nice to meet you." I said. This was very...official.

"Why dont you tell us a little about yourself." Paula said.

"Kay. Im thirteen, and I like singing, dancing, reading, writing, art, all stuff like that. My favriote sport is softball. I pretty much spend most of my time riding horses, and I always wanted to learn how to drive a four wheeler and dirtbikes." I said.

Ben nodded his head and Paula said, "We're both twenty-seven, and we used to live in the country."

"Used to?"

"We're staying on a cruise ship at the current moment." Ben said.

I nodded my head. These people seemed pretty nice and I liked them so far. We talked for an hour or so, and they told me a lot about themselves. By the end of the day we were laughing.

Cassie came in. "Is everything going well? Does anyone need anything?" she asked. Nosey, nosey Cassie...

"No, but if its ok with Alex, I think we'd like to bring her with us." Paula said smiling and glanced at me.

I smiled, letting Cassie know my answer. "Well then, Alex, why dont you go get your stuff, and we will get all of the paperwork settled." she said, leading m new, "parents" out of the room. I had a familiy now.

Smiling, I got up and walked to the room that I stayed in. I shared the room with two other younger girls, and one was gone. The other, Sarabell, who I knew the most was drawing with some crayons.

I leaned against the door and watched for a minute or two, thinking that I probobly wouldnt see her again.

I stepped into the room, grabbed a duffel bag, and started stuffing my things into it. Sarabell looked at me. "What are you doing?" she asked in her five-year-old voice.

"Im leaving." I said, putting my version of _Inkheart _into my bag. I finished putting everything away and looked up to see that Sarabell had tears in her eyes. We had been really good friends, and she was like a little sister to me, even if she was eight years younger then me.

"Im sorry Sarabell." I said, sitting next to her on her small bed. I put my arm around her shoulder and she hugged my waist.

"I dont want you to go." she said, looking at me with her bid brown eyes. Why'd she have to use the eyes?!

"I will see you again. I swear."


	3. Cruise's are perfect, yet not

The cruise ship was called, _The Princess Andromeda._

It was very...big. It had an achery range, it had gift shops, pools, luxery rooms, on deck eating areas...endless places. You could do almost anything on the ship. I had a room next to Paula and Ben's. It was cool. They said that I got a good room because they knew the person who helped run the ship.

It had a big window on one side that you could open and see all the water, with soft white curtains. A walk in closet, and private bathroom. The bed as huge with comfortable emerald colered sheets and pillows. There was ebony dressers and cabinets. Anything that wasnt ebony ws emerald. The walk-in closet had been stocked, beause Paula had taken me shopping. There was beautiful gem lamps and lights. I had a TV and a stereo, and lots of cds. Paula and Ben had even got me a laptop that was brown and had a green dove sitting on the branch on the skin.

I was in paradise.

One day, I just threw on some pants and a t-shirt and wandered the boat. I cam across one room that had big oak doors, which led into what im guessing is a state room. I almost went in, untill I heard voices.

Paula's, Ben's, and somone else's. The voice sounded familier but I didnt quite get it. I stepped into the room, seeing that all of the backs were turned to me.

Paula started turning into a bear. Ben the same.

Great, my so called parents were shape-shifting freaks.

I was kinda expecting somthing bad to happen. Paula and Ben had seemed...to perfect. Thats why I tried not to get to close to them. Guess that was a good thing.

"We have tricked her to come aboard the ship." A raspy voice came from one of the bears. I slowly brought out the paperwork that Ben and Paula had signed at the orphanage. They didnt know I had it. I saw a lighter and grabbed it.

"She's on the ship. She is the leader." the other bear said. Ugh.

Then I noticed who the third person was.

Luke.

"Good."

I spoke up. "Then you wont mind if I burn this."

The bears and Luke whirled around to see me put the papers in fire and drop them in the trash. Luke snapped his fingers, and the bears were gone. I ran out of the room, and back to my own. Here I was on a cruise with the perfect room, perfect stuff...and no family.

The next morning I didnt feel like going outside of my room. So I mostly listened to music and browsed the internet. I made a Myspace, and all that stuff. Went on youtube, visted , made a e-mail. Computers were fun. It was nice just sitting on my big comfy bed, with my stereo remote in one hand, computer on my lap, phone in the other hand in case I got hungry, and a book beside me.

I walked over to the mini-fridge that was stocked full of drinks. But all that I ever drank out of it was water because I dont like soda.

Before I went over to my comfy bed, I looked through the window. All I could see was the ocean. Not even a animal. Luckily for me, all I had to do was open my window and I could stick my hand into the water. So I opened my window and let my hand drift over the surface of the water. All of a sudden, and dolphin pushed my hand out of the water and did a backflip.

I gaped at the dolphin. He exposed his back to me and I started to rub it. It felt like...a wet beach ball. Ha! It seemed that the dolphin liked me rubbing his back, and I at least made somone happy.


	4. Searching for underwater sea castles

**How was it? Did ya'll like the last chap? Did ya? Did ya? Did ya? I cant read minds so the little butten down on the left hand side of the screen, you click on that, and guess what?! YOU CAN TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT MY STORY!! PLEASE CLICK THE BUTTEN! THE FARIES WILL THANK YOU! And I will too. Gah. **

"I'd like some macaroni and cheese with fries and a water please." I said into the reciver on the phone.

"It'll be right up Miss. DeClaire." the worker said into thephone. I hung up and stared around my room. I had just woke up, and it was already noon. It was the day after my "dolphin show" and I decided to go to the archery range, see if I was any good.

After lunch/breakfast I got dressed in some a jean skirt and a long sleeved black shirt. Today my hair was straight so I put it in a ponytail. I exited my room and walked on deck. Spotting the archery range, I was about to walk over to it when I noticed a boy.

He was looking over the railing, his black hair blowing with the wind. He looked confused as he stared out to the churning waves. I decided that whatever was troubling him, maybe I could help. He was about my age, thirteen.

I walked over beside him, but he was so absorbed in the water that he didnt notice me.

"You know, yesterday I was in my room looking out my window, and a dolphin came up to me. He was quite graceful, yet strangly funny, if dolphins can be." I said, searching the ocen for any dolphin fins.

The boy turned to face me. I took a few more seconds staring at the ocean, then turned to face him. He strangly reminded me of Percy, except for his eyes. His eyes were blue-green with flecks of red in them. He stared at me.

I raised my eyebrows and smiled, but the boy just stared at me. Finally I said, "Its not exactly nice to stare."

The boy shook his head and stuck out his hand. "Im Jason Stroll." he said.

"Alex DeClaire." I said, shaking his hand. "You seemed very intent on staring at the water."

"Yeah, well maybe I was looking for the underwater sea palace." Jason said, and we both laughed.

"Oh, so there is a sea palace?" I smiled.

"I dont know. Maybe a mermaid was about to take me there untill you interuppted." Jason said, a big smile crossing his face.

I put a hurt expression on my face. "Well I can leave-"

"Dont! I mean...there's no use now, you scared the mermaid off." Jason said.

" Hey, im not the one looking for a sea castle. But I was about to go to the archery range, if you my friend, want to come."

"I might as well." Jason said shrugging his shoulders. I led the way to the archery range. Jason sat down on a bench as I picked up a firery red bow and a quiver of arrows.

The targets were already up, so I aimed and shot. Dead center, and the target was about fifteen feet away.

"Oi, DeClaire! That was good!" Jason called out.

I bowed and shot the next one which was twice as far as the first. Center again.

"Beat that Stroll!" I said.

"I cant shoot a arrow if it were to save my life!" Jason said.

I smiled and kept practicing, and by the end of the hour, I could almost always hit center, and when I didnt, Jason would tease me.

Finally it was sunset. I was leaning against the railing and Jason was next to me, gazing out at the sea. It seemed that whenever he looked at it, he drifted off to a diffrent world.

I noticed a chain around Jason's neck. "Whats that?" I asked, pulling Jason from his parellel universe.

"Its a purple cow." Jason joked. "Actully, I've always had it ever since I was a baby." I gasped when he pulled the neaclace out.

It was just like mine, except with a ruby.

Somthing was wrong.


	5. Shrimp and plans

**Ha ha cliffe! Is that like a french word or is it pronounced like cliff? Sadly, no more cliffe/cliff. You are about to read my fith chapter. BEAT THAT JOSH! Me and my bro Josh were talkin about jobs a twelve year old girl talking about jobs. What has the world come too? and I told him about me being a writer and hes like, "Well I could wright a story if I wanted to, I just dont!" Sorry for my endless ranting, please read on. **

**Disclamier: This is why we have Fanfiction.**

I glanced impatiently at my watch. Where in the name of Hades was Jason? It was the day after we met, and I decided that we had to figure out somthing out about our necklaces. He was supposed to meet me at a dinig table so we could eat lunch over the conversation.

The waitress walked up to me with a fake smile plastered on her face. In a dreamy voice she said, "Hello im Kari your server today, would you like to order a drink?"

"Im waiting for somone, but their late so I'll have a water for me and diet coke for him." I said. The waitress nodded and walked away. A few seconds later, Jason slid into the seat across from me.

"Well busy boy, nice of you to come. Hope you like diet coke." I said as the waitress put down a water in front of me and the coke in front of Jason, and added two menu's. She walked away without a word. People talked loudly around us.

"Sorry, I was held up. I had a phone call from my mom." Jason said, opening a menu.

I felt kind of bad. "Oh. Thats okay, I didnt know you were talking to your mom."

"No prob." Jason said, putting down the menu figureing out what he wanted. I already knew so I didnt have to look.

"Okay, so down to buisness."

"Darn, I forgot my tie."

"And my purple dinosour. Tie's arnt the discussion point!" I said.

"Go on."

"I think they have us both on this ship for the same reason."

Suddenly, the waitress was looming over us again. "What would you like to order?" she asked.

"Chicken platter for me." I said, handing her the menu. The wind suddenly whipped at us, making her hair blow all over the place. In the next moment the wind was gone.

"And you?" she asked, turning to Jason.

"Shrimp basket please." Jason said, and the waitress walked off.

"What do you mean you think they have us on the ship for the same reason?"

"Exactly that."

"Explain a little."

I sighed. "We both have almost the same necklace right? And we were both just magiclly givin the oppertuinity to be here, so why wouldnt we?"

"Good point."

"Thank you."

The waitress interuppted our conversation, again. "Here's you food." She said, setting down the plates and walking away. Jason shoved three peices of shrimp into his mouth.

"Anyway, I think we should leave." I said.

Jason almost spit out the shrimp.

"You're insane!"

"I dont suffer from insainity, I enjoy every minute of it."

"Nice. But still, you must be crazy. Why would we leave this ship, and where would we go?"

"I think I know where to go to get some answers. Im leaving, and you can come with me if you like."

Jason seemed to ponder this thought for a moment. "Well, if I let you go by yourelf, you might discover the underwater sea castle and take credit for it, so I might as well go with you."

"Uh! I wouldnt take all of the credit, just most of it."

"My point."

"Now all we need to do is follow my plan."

"Whats the first step of it?"

"Make a plan.''


	6. We escape as spies on a flying horse

**Its like...midnight. I actully have nothing to say. That doesnt happen often. Odd. Maybe its because I had a cinnimon roll like, five seconds ago. Yeah. Gah. Bye.**

My alarm clock woke me up. It was midnight, and extremely dark outside. The room around me was pitch black. I reluctently pushed the comfortable blankets of of me, and slid my feet to hit the soft carpet. I could hear nothing. And couldnt see anything eaither. Great.

Game plan: I wake up in the middle of the freakin night. Get dressed. Pack. Leave room. Watch for the gaurds around the ship why does a cruise need gaurds? With flashlights? Meet Jason at the achery range. Jason goes way underdeck, where they have these kind of stables. A few horses. Well on of the horses, there were wings. Yes wings. I didnt believe it untill I saw it. I wait on deck by achery range and make sure coast is clear, and Jason brings up the horse. We escape, the end.

So many things could go wrong with this plan. But, they could also go right. I changed out of sweatpants and a t-shirt into black jeans, a black shirt, and a black jacket, with black shoes. Black, as in I-better-blend-in-with-the-night-or-we're-dead-black.

In a camoflauged bag, I packed a change of clothes, food, water, ipod, laptop, ect. When I was done, I walked over to what I thought was the door. It wasnt the door. It was the wall.

I walked straight into the wall, falling to floor. Letting out a whisper of aceint greek curses, I slowly climbed to my feet. Feeling against the wall I quickly found the door. I opened and closed it quietly. It was a little better when I got out on deck because of the moonlight. Jason had suggested we didnt use flashlights in case of being noticed.

I crouched low, and made my way over to the achery range. It looked very eerie at night. Good thing I was getting of this ship in the next hour.

Somone covered my mouth with their hand and turned me around so I didnt scream. I almost did untill I noticed it was Jason, holding a finger to his lips.

"Did you want me to scream and ruin everything?!" I whisper-hissed. In the faint light, I saw Jason smile.

"Maybe. Or maybe I wanted to see the look on your face."

I punched his shoulder, but smiled. Its not like I screamed anyway.

"Do you have the walkie-talkies?" I asked him. He pulled one out of his pocket.

"Yup. And I brought you this," he said, handing me a bow and quiver of arrows.

"Why?"

"Just in case."

What would I need a bow and a quiver full of arrows for on a cuise ship? But then again, it was midnight, everything was black, and I had no idea where anything was. Plus, there was somthing freaky going on on this ship, and Luke was always pretty weird.

I just shrugged and said, "Lets do this."

Jason ran of below deck. I whispered into the walkie talkie, "I feel like a spy."

In a moment, a scratchy voice said, "I know. Im saddleing the horse now. She seems pretty excited to be leaving."

"Ok." I whispered into the talkie. Shoot, I forgot to say over.

"Coast clear?" a loud voice errupted from the talkie. I barely had time to duck behind a stack of boxes before a light swept toward me.

"Not anymore. Shhh!" I said into the talkie.

I laid flat on my stomach as heavy boots thundered past me. The stopped right beside the boxes. Crud.

Everything was silent. For a second I thought I was breathing to hard, but then the boots walked away.

"Coast clear." I said into the talkie, scanning the deck.

About five minutes later, Jason and a dapple-gray horse with wings was beside us. We each tied both of our bags onto one side of the saddle.

I told Jason I'd sit in front on the horse. So I got on first. And then the bad stuff started to happen.

Some guy flashed the flashlight in my face. "Hey! Your _that _girl! And your _that _boy!"

I didnt like how the man said, "that".

Jason flashed me a look, and I drew my bow and arrow, and took aim.

The man pulled out a sword. A sword!

"Holy CRAP!" I said. Jason drew a dagger.

"You should have told me you had that." I said, not taking my eyes of the man.

"I figured you would stop the plan." he said.

"You figured wrong."

"Im sorry to interupt your conversation, but my boss is coming, so if you could please get off the horse..." the man said, taking one hand off his sword hilt.

We didnt move. What did he mean by boss? Who was the person the made his workers carry swords with them? I know who, a wack job. A complete and total wacko. Thats who.

The wack job was Luke. That made sense.

"Luke?" Jason said.

"Im confused." I volentered.

"He's my moms, ex-husbands, brothers, friends, sisters son." Jason said.

I stared at him.

"Miss. Alex, why dont you put the bow down, and we can all talk about this reasonably." Luke said.

"Are you gonna let us off this ship?" I asked.

"Well..."

"Its a simple yes or no question."

"No."

"Wrong answer."

I shot the bow, and it whizzed a decimeter away from Luke and the mans heads. Jason jumped on the horse.

"Alex, Jason, get back here!" Luke roared as I kicked the horse, and it took of into the sky. We were off the ship.


	7. I almost die as a welcome

**Once again, I have nothing to say. I need to see a doctor.**

It had been a day on the horse. Well, I should specify. Every three and a half hours, we would spot a piece of land and stop, ya know, let the horse rest, eat.

Well, now we were outta food. But the good news was:

We just got Geico car insurence.

But all we had was a very tired, hungry horse.

But I have even better news then that.

We just saw land. Lots of land. We had come to New York.

"Jason! Land ho! We found New Yorkie!" I said excitedly, and Jason chuckled.

"Now we cant continue our sea castle search." Jason fake-whined, and I elbowed him in the stomach.

"Look! Buildings! People!" I said.

"So where's this camp at?" Jason asked.

I looked below me and pointed. "I think thats it, because theres a dude with a horse body."

"That would be our best soulution."

In a few minutes I landed next to a white tree. Kids were everywhere. Basketball court, stables, lake, cabins, big white house, strawberry feilds, achery range, ect.

Suddenly two boys with blond hair and blue eyes were in front of us, with swords at our necks.

"Nice to meet you to." I said.

"Sally, go get Chiron, tell him some of the Titan army have invaded." The boy holding his sword up to my neck said to a girl with red hair and hazel eyes. She ran off.

"So...where are we?" I asked, wanting to make sure this was camp Half-Blood.

"Stop acting dumb," the boy in front of me said.

"Attitude." I whistled. Suddenly a half-horse half-man person ran/cantered up to us.

"Who invaded?" he asked.

"These two," the dude holding a sword up to Jason's neck said. A small crowd had started to gather. Then I noticed who the horse man was.

"Uh...Mr. Brunner? Its me Alex." I said, waving slightly.

"Connor Stoll, get your sword away from her neck!" Chiron barked, and the boy in front of me jumped back.

"Nice welcoming ceremony." I said. Lots of kids sourounded us now.

"Come to the Big House. We have things to discuss." Mr. Brunner said.

"Uh...my friend Jason?" I said pointing a thumb at Jason.

"Travis, put your sword away." Mr. Brunner said. The boy did as he was told. "Lee Fletcher, please take care of this horse. Meeting of the cabin leaders after dinner." Mr. Brunner called out to the crowd. They all nodded and slowly went back to their activities, while the boy named Lee led the horse down to the stables.

Jason and I followed Mr. Brunner to a three story white house with a wrap around porch. Maybe I should explain a little about what I saw.

Mr. Brunner had the tweed jacket that smelled like coffee and stuff on, but he had hooves, four legs, and a tail. Freaky.

"So would you mind tlling us exactly where we're at?" Jason asked.

Mr. Brunner didnt answer untill he was back in his weelchair, at a table across from a large man in a hawian shirt playing some kind of game.

"You're at Camp Half-Blood." the man in the hawian shirt said.

"Good. And by the way, a few sit ups wouldnt hurt." I said. Then round man shot me a evil glare, and it seemed that his eyes were burning fire.

"Alex, would you mind explaining why and how you got here?" Mr. Brunner said.

''Sure, I have nothing else to do. The people who adopted me took me aboard a ship called _The Princess Andromeda. _It turns out they really didnt care and were shape shifting freaks that turned into eagles and tried to kill me. Then after that I met Jason, and we had the same necklaces, so I thought somthing weird was going on. Then I remembered Annabeth telling me that if anything weird happened to come to camp Half-Blood. So we made a plan to escape on that horse and come here. The end."

Mr. Brunner stared at me and Jason. He just stared. After a few minutes, I checked my watch. Looking back at Mr. Bunner I said, "We dont have all day."

Mr. Brunner shook his head and snapepd back to life. "You _both _have necklaces?" he said in a worrysome voice.

"Yup." Was my intelligent reply.

"Then you're both part of the prophecy," I heard Mr. Brunner say under his breath.

"What?" I asked.

"First of all, call me Chiron."

"Like in the greek myths?"

"Why does everyone ask that question?"

"Just making sure.''

Chiron shook his head and ran his hand along the hem of his tweed jacket.

"Brace yourselves for a long story." Chiron warned. Me and Jason squirmed in our seats, then nodded to single to continue the story.

"All of the greek mythology is true. All of the Olympian gods, monsters, people. Well, now Western Civilazation is the new Olympus. And all these kids are demi-gods, or half-bloods. They have one mortal parent, when god parent. This is the only place where they can come and not be attacked by monsters."

I whistled. "So are we demi-gods?" I asked.

"Yes." the chubby man in the hawiian shirt said unenthusiasticlly.

"As I was saying, there is a prophecy that a child of the big three, Zeus, Poisedon, or Hades, will decide the fate of the world when he or she is sixteen. That would include Thalia, daughter of Zeus, or Percy, son of Poisedon."

I glanced at Jason. He had a look in his eyes that I coulnt comprehend.

"One of the former campers, a son of Hermes, is trying to bring back the dead Titan Lord, and is succeding. His name is Luke, and is trying to wipe out all half-bloods that dont join his army."

Im sure my face paled at that. So Luke, the man on the ship, was trying to get me to join his army and help destro the gods. But why me in peticular?

"There is another prophecy. Four children were born, and are signaled that they are one of the prophecy by wearing a necklace, with a sun and moon, for night and sun. Apperntly, you two are part of the prophecy. We have a third of the prophecy, Gabriella, of Athena's cabin. You will meet her later."

"What about the fourth?" Jason asked.

"The forth is legendary. His name is Ely, and will not be found untill the other three find him. He is said to be great, strong, brave and powerful."

Me and Jason were quiet. Then all of a sudden, somthing green starting stirring above Jason's head. Like a green mist in the form of a trident?

Chiron gaped at Jason's head while Dynosius just stared. Finally he said, "Welcome Jason, son of Poisedon."


	8. Come back sane please

**How was the last chapter? Good hopefully? Please tell me reveiwians! And I have a poll in my profile, please vote!**

I was sitting around a ping pong table with my new friend Gabriella on one side, and Jason on the other. There were snacks in the middle, and I had my eyes and hands on the spicy hot cheetos. The people around the table were:

Percy: You met him. He also is now my best friends brother, and head of Poisedon cabin.

Annabeth: Once again, you met her. She is my other best friends sister, and head of Athena's cabin.

Thalia: Daughter of Zeus, head of that cabin.

Gabriella: My now bestie girl friend. She's not like most Athena kids, as she has really dark brown hair and gray eyes with pink flecks in them. She had a necklace like mine, except pink. She is very shy, but cool.

Clarisse: One mean, large, bully machine. Head of Ares cabin, and definitly somone that you dont want to mess with.

Silena: Head of Aphrodite cabin. Very beautiful, and would be very cool if she stopped obbsessing over her looks.

The Stoll Brothers: The ones who had once had their swords to my neck. They apologized later.

Dynosius, Chiron, and all the other cabin leaders.

Chiron stomped a hoof, and all the talking died down. "We are gathered here today-"

"No ones dead or getting married right?" I said, picking out dirt from under my fingernails. Some of the kids snorted.

"No, Alex, no one is dead or getting married." Chiron answered.

"Okay, go on," I said and waved my hand.

Chiron sighed and said, "As you will all now know, Alex and Jason are also part of the prophecy."

Shocked faces stared at me. I raised my eyebrows.

"This means we finally have all three of the prophecied children,-"

"Who's leader?" Travis Stoll asked.

"Alex." Chiron responded.

I sat straight up in my chair. "What?!"

"Well, the prophecy states that the one with the emerald shall lead, and obviously, thats you."

I pouted and sat back in my chair. Stupid prophecy!

"That means Jason, Alex, and Gabriella will go on a quest to fing the great Ely." Chiron said. "Alex will have to lead the quest since shes leader."

"But I've barely practiced with the swords, or anything!" I objected.

"Right. Gabriella, you will help Alex."

Gabriella nodded. Why did I have to be leader? Gabriella would much better suit this role. She was smart, pretty, nice and Athena knows what else.

"Alex, you may go to the oracle-"

"The what?"

"The oracle."

"Whats that, a disese or somthing?"

Conner Stoll snorted into his Root Beer.

"No, its upstairs in the attic. It will give you a prophecy."

"But Im already part of a prophecy."

Chiron sighed. I knew what he was trying to say, I was just trying to be stubborn.

"Just go to the attic, and do as the oracle says. Come back down sane, and we will discuss your prophecy."

Come back down sane. That helps. I got up and went up the stairs in the room. Soon I was in a dusty attic with lots of old things. What freaked me out the most was a mummy woman n the corner sitting on a stool.

A voice in my head said, "Approach seeker, and ask."

I was about too, when my ADHD and dyslexia kicked in, and I zooned out, and started flipping through some books, compleatly forgetting about what the oracle said. Bout five minutes later a voice in my head screamed, "APPROCH SEEKER AND ASK, FOR THE LAST TIME!"

I jumped, knocking over a pile of books. The voice in my head sighed and I said, "Uh...well..."

"Out with it!" the voice was very agitated.

"How am I supposed to find Ely?" I asked.

**Cliffe! Please reveiw. And if you have any ideas at all for the prophecy, do share! Please! I cant rhyme!**


	9. Heal my nose Gabriella

Please reveiw! And thanks to a fellow reveiwer, for helping me with the prophecy. They practiclly wrote the whole thing. Me and rhym-y words dont get along.

I ran down the stairs. When I say ran, I mean a streak of lightning. That oracle thingy was freaky! I jumped down the last six steps then did a faceplant into the back of Jason's head. People laughed as I staggered back and held the bridge of my nose. It hurt bad!

"Its not funny!" I shouted desprately. My nose really hurt.

"Let me see it." Gabriella said and stood up.

"What about me?!" Jason whined, holding the back of his neck.

"You're fine," I said and removde my hand so Gabriella could look ay my nose.

"Ouch. Here, take some of this," Gabriella said and pulled a little golden cube out of her pocket. I ate it, and my nose felt better. But some people were still smiling.

I sat down next to Jason and Gabriella.

"You know, my neck really hurts. Since you hurt it, I think you should give my poor neck a massage-" I cut Jason off with a smack to the back of the neck, and everyone burst out laughing again.

When the laughter died down I said, "There's your massage."

"We now have one career eliminated." Jason said, and I threw a cheeto at him.

"Alex, would you please recite the exact words of the prophecy for us?" Chiron asked.

"Wh-why? I-I mean why bother? Theres no meaning to these prophecies right because I dont think there is because I mean, come on. N-no I dont think I'll bore you with ryming words." I stuttered. Thats what I do somtimes when I get nervous.

Chiron stared at me. "Fine then. I'll say it," I said.

_"A barren land the jeweled three must find,_

_There a palace uncovered by the daughter of mind_

_The boy least expected is the one you seek_

_Take him away whether he be rich or meek_

_Tunnels through the ground the boy will create_

_If its a trick discovered it is your fate_

_Beware of the Onyx dont give it your trust_

_For returning to camp is a definite must."_

Silence. That made me feel better.

Finally Connor said, "Isnt an Onyx somthing in a Pokemon game?"

"Yeah, it is." I said as that just dawned on me. "I wonder if thats actully what it looks like."

"I love that game. My favriote is Bullbusor."

"Oh, mine is Vulpix and Nine-tails-"

Chiron interuppted our importent conversation. "Now is not the time to discuss video games."

I fake-pouted but said no more.

"Alex who will you take on this quest?" Chiron asked me.

"Oh...I get to choose?"

"Two more people."

"Ah...Jason and Gabriella." I was thinking about adding "duh" at the end of that sentence, but decided against it.

"Okay. You have two days to find a weapon, learn how to use it, and pack your bags. The only clue you get is your prophecy. Meeting closed."


	10. Tie up the preps NOW!

**Thanks for the reveiws! Keep doing your job! Drive safe! If you can drive...**

You never know whats going to happen to you in the Hermes cabin. And one thing I absoloutly dreaded-morning people.

There was these really preppy people that got up at **six a.m. **Six o' clock in the freakin morning! My sleeping schedule lasts between ten in the morning to one in the afternoon.

So now that you know my sleeping schedule-dont bother me.

After some random person nudged me, and whispered a plan in my ear, I smiled into my pillow and slowly stood up, putting my hair in a ponytail to keep my hair out of my face.

There were three of us, doing the plan. Another girl, and a boy.

_You distract _he mouthed to the other girl and she pushed herself to the top of the group.

"Hey guys! Come here, I have somthing I really need to show you!" she said excitedly.

While all of the preppy peoples backs where turned, the guy grabbed the nearest prep, with his hand over her mouth.

I quickly bound her feet together, then her hands, then put a bandanna over her mouth. We set the girl in a corner, then went for the next.

When ten minutes had passed, all the preps were quietly struggling in a corner. The rest of the cabin groaned thank you's, then went back to sleep. But before I could go back to sleep, there was a knock on the door.

The nearest undetermined kid groaned, got up, and opened the door. I didnt bother looking at who it was, so I just buroed my face back in my pillow. Who in their right mind would be here and six-fifteen in the morning?

Somone nudged me in my ribs with their foot. "Its for you."

I bured my face farther into the soft pillow, and moaned in a muffled voive, "Go away!"

I heard snickers come from the doorway.

"Get up." The person said, nudging me harder.

"Come back in five hours. For now, leave a message after the beep. Beeeeeeeeeeepppppppppppppp."

More snickers.

There were footsteps, and the person who tried to wake me was gone. "She wont get up." I heard the voice say.

Groaning, I stood up. I was wearing purple striped pajama pants, and a long sleeved purple shirt. I scuffed my feet all the way over to the doorway, where I saw Percy, Gabriella, and Jason. They were all dressed with smiles in their faces.

"You're all one of them." I said darkly as the other person who had opened the door went back to their sleeping bag.

"One of what?" Gabriella asked.

"Morning people. Preps. Do you wanna know what we did to the preps today?" I asked, and pointed to the corner.

Gabriella moved behind Percy and Jason. "Im scared," she sarcasticlly whispered.

Jason and Percy looked at each other. Then they smiled evilly, and before I could do anything, they both garbbed one of my arms and dragged me out of the cabin. Gabriella shut the door behind them.

"No! Sleep!" I mourned over the loss of my uncomfortable floor and fluffy pillow and scatchy blanket.

"You'll live," Gabriella said, skipping merily as the two half-brothers dragged me down to the sword arena. No one was anywhere to be seen.

"I havnt changed yet! And I dont even have shoes on!" I whined.

"Take a shower afterwords. You'll live," Percy said.

I grumbled under my breath. Percy pulled a pen out of his pocket, uncapped it, and a long bronze sword grew out of it.

I was a demi-god, and was used to these kind of things happeing. Gabriella pulled out a long spear, with a very sharp point. I didnt want to fight her as much as Percy.

"Percy's best with a sword, and Im best with a spear. Now we just need to know what your guys's weapons are." Gabriella said.

Jason went first. First, he tried a bow and arrow. I was the scariest thing I had ever seen. Chiron had come down to supervise, and lets just say, a part of his tail got a unexpected haircut.

Next was daggers. Not as bad, but if that was his best weapon, we were doomed.

Then it was spears. By the time Jason was done with spears, a few basketballs were flat.

Then it swords. And finally, Jason got the right weapon. He actully did well against Gabriella. In fact, he did great, but Gabriella had better experience, and still won.

Then it was my turn. The first weapon I tried I instantly knew was right for me. Bows and arrows.

The target was fifteen feet away. And I got a bulls eye.

We had our weapons.


	11. The golden sarcoughegus is pushy

I know this chapter really doesnt have much to do with anything with the story, but I wanted Alex's time left at camp to be fun. Soo...yeah.

After I had found my weapon, I took a shower. Then I went to hang out with Jason, Gabriella, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover.

Then, all of a sudden, we heard yells and shouts from the top of Half-Blood hill. I jumped up, and we all ran to where a crowd was gathering by the pine tree. And when I got to the scene, I burst out laughing.

I guess what I saw where Chiron's cousins. A whole bunch of centaurs were there, with paint ball guns, airsoft, bow and arrows, soda drinking caps, and rubberband shooters.

And Chiron stood there, covered head to hoof with paint. Multi-colered paintball shells were scatered on the ground.

I tapped the nearest centaur on the sholder. He turned around with a blue Tipman paintball gun in his hands. "May I?" I asked.

The dude nodded crazily, and handed me the gun. Oh, I would have so much fun with this.

After Chiron sent us all back to our cabins, banning us from smores tonight, I still laughed. I was playing poker with Travis and Conner. Or at least, they were trying to teach me.

"No, you dont put your cards down now." Travis said, and reshuffled the deck.

"How abuot we play war? Me and you? I know how to play that." I said.

Travis smiled evily. Conner shook his head. "You shouldnt have asked Travis. He rules at that game."

"We'll see," I said as Conner evened out the decks for both of us. Travis layed down his first card.

"Three of hearts." he said kind of glumly.

"Five of diamonds," I said showing Travis the card, then taking Travis's card and my own and putting them in a pile beside me.

"Six of spades."

"Eight of hearts."

The game continued on, and I won. Again...and again...and again.

"There is a new champion!" I said, winning the fith game in a row.

"Im going to bed." Travis grumbled getting up. We all should go to bed, it was really late. And I had to get up early again tomorrow.

So we all went to bed. And while I was sleeping, I had the weirdest dream.

_"They are coming." Luke said to the golden sarcoughagus in front of him. The room got colder. "Percy Jackson and his friends will start out on a quest to get the Fleece soon after."_

_A deep, dark voice boomed in the room, making the man with two diffrent colored eyes twitch, and the musculer man whereing combat boots in the corner blink._

_"Try to get the three. Only when they are in our possesion can we let them get the fourth. If they get the fourth, we dont have much of a chance."_

_Luke bowed his head. "Master, what is Alex's power?" he dared._

_"Everything." the voice boomed. Luke looked confused._

_"And Percy Jackson and his friends?" he said quietly._

_"Let them get the Fleece. Then ambush them on their way back, and take it."_

_"What do we do with them when we take it?" Luke asked._

_"Kill them."_


	12. Blue eyed Brown eyed freak

**Enjoy!**

The next morning, I had the rudest awakening. Travis and Conner each took one of my arms and yanked really hard, pulling me into a sitting position.

"Hey!" I screamed. It seemed that I woke everyone else up after that.

"You have to get ready," Conner said.

"I packed last night," I grumbled, yanking my hands away, and running one through my hair. People shifted around me, going back to sleep.

"Chiron told us to wake you up fifteen minutes ago. You sat up, told us "Im up, im up." We left to go get somthing to eat, and when we came back, you were sleeping." Travis explained.

"Well you didnt have to pull my arms out of their sockets!" I said, looking at my watch. "Its seven-thirty in the morning!"

"Yup." Conner said.

"I will kill you." I said standing up and grabbing a pile of clothes I had layed out the night before. "Im gonna go take a shower."

--

A half an hour later, I was standing in the middle of the Hermes cabin, dressed in light ripped jeans, a brown t-shirt, and a black leather jacket since it had gotten super cold over night. I had my camp backpack slung over one shoulder, with a quiver of arrows on the other, with my silver bow in my other hand thank you Lee Fletcher!.

The cabin said their goodbye's all at once, and I left, shutting the door softly behind me. The back of my high ponytail tickled the back of my neck as I jogged up Half-Blood hill, where Jason, Gabriella, Chiron, Percy, and Argus stood.

"Finally." Jason joked. I punched him in the arm playfully.

"Argus will drive you three into the city. You're on your own from there." Chiron said.

We all nodded. As Chiron babbled on about being safe, I thought about if I should tell Chiron about the dream I had last night. It had Luke in it. And the sarcougagus. And they were clearly talking about me, Jason, and Gabriella.

It was then that I noticed everyone was looking at me.

"What?" I said.

"We asked you a question." Gabriella said.

"Oh." Was the best reply I could think of.

"You three need to get going. Good luck to all of you." Chiron said, and we all started down the hill. We packed our luggage in the back of the van, and I took passenger seat.

An hour later, we were in New York City. Argus dropped us off at a Cafe considering we had skipped breakfast.

We all walked into the Cafe. As for our weapons, we hid them in our bags. Jason and Gabriella found a booth by a window and took our bags, while I ordered.

"Three chocolate doughnuts, and three hot chocolates." I said, cold from the icy wind outside.

The cashier got the food, and I paid and brought it back to our seats.

I took a sip of the hot chocolate. It instantly burned my tounge, so I figured I'd let it cool down for a bit.

"So, any idea's on where to go?" I asked.

Jason shoved the whole doughnut in his mouth while Gabriella fished a peice of paper out of her pocket. I instantly recognized the words. "You wrote down my prophecy?!" I asked.

"Yeah. Okay, so the first line is, "A barren land the jeweled three must find." Any suggestions?"

"Woft alobt lexis?" Jason asked.

Gabriella and I stared at him. I shook my head and said, "Sorry, I dont speak "Brainless"."

Jason glared daggers at me till he finished his doughnut. "I said, "What about Texas?" You'd think you'd be a little nicer to me since you have to travel with me till Zeus knows when."

Thunder boomed and it started to rain.

"Sorry, sorry." Jason murmured.

"I dont think that just saying his name would have caused that. It mut have been a warning for somone. And I say Arizona. Its more barren." Gabriella said and I nodded.

"I agree. Two against one. We go to Arizona." I said, and I noticed a man all alone in the booth next to us. He was just sipping coffee, staring at the table. But he kinda freaked me out. When he looked up from the table, I saw the weirdest thing. The man had one blue eye and one brown. Like the one in my dream.

He got up, and exited the Cafe, and a group of people followed him. Weird.

"So, how do we get there?" Jason asked, bringing me back to reality.

"I say we travel as far as we can by bus, then walk to the nearest biggest city after that, get a one-way train tickit to Arizona, and plan from there on the train." I suggested.

"Ok. Jason, is that all right with you?" Gabriella asked.

Jason shrugged. "Its sounds great to me. I say we go for it."

"Good. We'll leave at ten." I said, and we all sipped our hot chocolate quietly.


	13. NEXT!

**I dont know why im updating so much on this story...but I guess thats a good thing huh?**

We rushed into the bus station, escaping the frosty air. "Brrrr!" Gabriella said, shivering.

Jason put his arms around us. "Dont worry girls, I'll keep you warm!" he said in a superman voice. We both ducked underneath his arms.

"You couldnt have done that _outside _in the _freezing _air?" I exagerated, and hugged my leather jacket to my body.

"Uh...the thought didnt occur to me then."

I rolled my eyes. "No wonder Annabeth calls your brother seweed brain. I guess it runs in the family." Gabriella and I left Jason by the door looking confused.

When we were about three yards away in the large crowd of people, we heard him say, "Hey!"

Gabriella and I snickered and waited in line as Jason caught up. "That wasnt very nice. It hurt in here," he said, and tapped where his heart was supposed to be with a finger.

"Oh please Jason, what did you expect from Alex?" Gbariella said as we stepped foward in line. The bus station was really crowded, and the line had at least twenty people ahead of us.

"What has the world come to when friends pick on their own friends?" Jason asked.

I smirked. "Welcome to two-thousand eight."

The line started moving faster. It seemed that the woman at the desk wasnt even handing out tickets. About five minutes later we were at the desk.

Before we could say anything, the woman said, "We're very sorry, but the bus's have been delayed till tomorrow due to upcoming Thunderstorm, and snow." She said.

I gaped at her. "You cant be serious!" I said.

"I am very sorry. NEXT!" She called out. I walked away from the desk with Gabriella and Jason, into the chilly air outside the busy bus station.

"I cant believe it!" Jason said.

"I say we take a plane, but somone would get burned to a crisp if we did." Gabriella said, eyeing Jason like it was his fault his dad was the sea god.

"I think its worth it." I said shrugging my shoulders. Jason glared daggers at me. "What?" I asked innocently.

Another crowd of people came out of the bus station frustrated. They all left except one man, who stood with his hands in his pockets, and a hat covered his face.

All of a sudden, rain started falling, fast. Jason and Gabriella pulled up the hoods on their jackets, while I pulled a gray ski cap out of my bag, and put it on my head, tucking my hair into it.

"Great, just great." Jason mumbled. We were all alone with the man who was looking at his feet.

The man turned to us, and what I saw kinda freaked me out. This was the man that had two colered eyes, one blue, one brown.

"Do you children need a ride?" he asked us in a heavy frenh accent. I didnt like the look of this.

"Um...no, we will probobly just take the train or somthing." I said, sharing glances with Gabriella and Jason.

"But I have a helicopter. I can get you where you want to go faster." he said, and took a step toward us.

Jason stepped in front of me and Gabriella. "No sir. We dont take rides from strangers." he said in a very tough tone, which I had never heard him use before.

The man grinned. "Smart children." was all he said.

"Come on Jason, lets go find a train station or somthing." I said, and Gabriella and I each grabbed one of his arms and pulled him away from the man.

Jason glared at him one last time then let us pull him away.

"What was with that guy?" Gabriella asked.

"That wasnt good." Jason said as thunder boomed. "That was the guy who had taken me aboard the ship."


	14. Gabriella gets a little headache

**This chapter goes out to Acheilies, who let me borrow his charectors for this chapter. And everyone else, thanks for the reveiws! Your da bomb!**

After Jason said that we practiclly pushed him into the nearest ally. It was quiet except for the rain, and drips of water running of a gutter and hitting the dumpster below it.

"What?!" Jason asked.

"He's the one who put you on the ship?" Gabriella asked acusinglly.

"Yes." Jason replied uneasily.

"Why didnt you mention that while we were standing right next to him?" Gabriella asked.

"I didnt know untill I heard him talk!" Jason said defensivly.

Gabriella stood there with her fists tight, shoulders tensed, and jaw clenched. I seriously thought she was gonna punch Jason. But after a moment, she relaxed, stretching her fingers, closing her eyes and brething deeply. "At least he wasnt following us." She mumered, more to herself then to us.

I felt a little uneasy after that. I had seen him at the coffe store before too. "Um, actully..." I started. What was I supposed to say? I didnt want Gabriella getting mad again.

They both stared at me. "What?" Gabriella asked as if what I said would set of a five second bomb and blow up the world.

"Well, actully,-"

"We dont have all day!" Gabriella said irritably. I raised my eyebrows. What was her problem? She was fine a few hours ago.

"While we were at the coffee shop, he was sitting into the booth next to us." I said.

"Why didnt you say anything?" She asked.

"Because Jason didnt tell us yet."

She turned to him and said, "Why did you not speak up?"

"I didnt see him!" Jason defended himself.

"Gabriella, chill!" I said. "He didnt know, I didnt know, you didnt know, so theres no need to yell!" I demanded.

She huffed and walked farther down the ally. Jason and I exchanged a glance and followed her. She stopped at a steam of sunlight shining on a puddle that was the size of a old TV. She dug into her pocket and finally brought out a drachma.

It stopped raining. Gabriella closed her eyes and flipped the coin into the air and said, "O godess please except my offering. Camp Half-Blood." I think she was so mad she forgot to say a name.

A image of two people sitting on a beach shone on the puddle in a flash of colors, then the image settled. They were talking quietly.

"Um, hello?" Gabriella asked imapiently, putting her hands on her hips.

The two heads snapped towards us. I recognized them from camp as Drake and Sarah.

"Oh, hi Gabriella!" Sarah said. "I was just-"

"I dont care, go get Chiron." Gabriella interuppted. Sarah's face fell.

I stepped close to Gabriella so Sarah and Drake could see me. "Sorry, shes a little upset. Could we _please _see Chiron?" I asked politily.

Drake nodded and said, "We'll go get him Alex." He stood up and helped Sarah up, and they jogged off towards the Big House.

"Is it possible to be anymore rude?" I asked Gabriella.

She glared at the Iris message, not even bothering to look at me.

After a minute, Chiron galloped into the picture. "Yes? It hasnt even been a day yet, this better be importent." I could tell he wasnt angry, just wary.

He looked at me and I put up my hands innocently. "Dont look at me. Im not the one who wanted to talk to you. No offense."

"I had a dream." Gabriella stated bluntly. Chiron stared at her.

"Marin Luther King Jr. the second." I stated. She didnt even look at me.

"Thats the only reason you used a drachma to talk to me? Was to say you had a dream?" Chiron asked increadusly. "Usually Alex is the one who acts before thinking."

"Hey!" I said, but made a side note to work on that.

"Im not acting like a child, I just thought I should tell you what was in the dream. I had the dream on the night before we left."

Shivers ran down my spine, but ignored that.

"And this dream was about...?" Chiron said.

"The future. It showed an underground army of demi-gods that had servived. Rebels all over. All the gods had been captured and put in a prison in the underworld. Kronos was alive, and most were worshipers of him.

"Anyone evil was part of the goverment, Kronos's army. There was a council for the Rebels. It was Alex, Jason, Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, you, me, and some of the other cabin leaders at camp. There were a few saytars and tree nymphs too."

Im pretty sure we were all shocked when Gabriella finished. If that was the real future...it wasnt good.

"I'll think about this. Tell me if anyone else has these dreams." Chiron said, and I could almost hear his mind working a mile a minute.

We all nodded, said our good byes, and ended the Iris message.

It was then I noticed the sky darkening. The outline of the sky was pink and orange, and it was nearing midnight.

"We should all get some sleep," I said. Gabriella and Jason nodded.

I had brought extra blankets with me. We found a space in between a wall and a dumpster, and decided it would have to do.

The air got chilly, so we layed a thin blanket on the groung, and we all shared the thick blanket. I took my hot off, and put some gloves on that only went halfway up my fingers. Since my hair had fallen out of the ponytail long ago, it was now lying flat against my neck.

I was against the wall, then it was Gabriella, then Jason by the dumpster. We used our backpacks against the wall so it was a little more comfy, and we didnt have to worry about them being stolen.

Soon, we were fast asleep.


	15. Note

**Okay everyone, I have good news, and bad news. The good news is, tomorrow, im going to Florida! The bad news, is that I wont be able to update down there, do to our lack of computers. **

**So anything posted by HAYDENpfan from here untill next week, will be a imposter.**

**Im very sorry that I wont be able to update, but maybe it will inspire me some for good ideas.**

**I shall let everyone know as soon as I get back with the treat of a new chapter! Yay! So be happy. Thank you for reading, and please continue to do so, not-including this delay.**

**Thank you, and good-bye!**

**HAYDENpfan**


	16. You're rich!

**I have decided that I will update on all of my stories at least once a week. I should probobly set a date for that, but all I got right now is that I will update once a week. Stay in school! Do your homework! Oh wow, I dont even use the advice I hand out. **

**REVEIW!**

When I woke up, I heard honking horns all over. It was compleatly pitch-black. It was then I heard feet shuffling down the alley way.

Crud. Or for those of you who are not allowed to say that, fertilizer.

I slowly pushed the blanket off of me and stood up. Since it was dark I had to navigate by sound. In few minutes, it seemed the noise was a few feet in front of me. There was a light in front of me, and I stayed out of it. Finally, the person stepped into the light, and I jumped out, pressed the person against the wall, and pulled my fist back. Then I saw it was Jason.

Whoops.

"What in the name of Hades are you doing?!" Jason cried as I let go of him. Thunder boomed overhead, and Jason mumbled his apologies.

"My bad," I said and shrugged.

"My bad!? You're going to deck me in the face!"

As Jason pushed past me I said, "You mean, I WAS going to punch you. Past tense."

"Oh jee, we're on a quest away from the only safe place of survival and you correct me on my spelling? Gosh!" He started walking down the ally from the way I came.

I was about to point out that past tense was grammer, but Jason didnt seem in the mood, so I just followed him quietly.

"I mean, im out for...what, an hour, and then you-"

"Wait a minute!" I said a jumped in front of him with suspicion plastered all over my face. "What were you doing out for an hour? The plan was we rest up on sleep, and travel all day tomorrow."

Jason looked like he ha been caught sneeking cookies out of the cookie jar.

"Dont change the subject," he growled, and pushed past me again. This time I grabed his arm and pulled him back.

"What?!'' he asked fircely.

He looked mad. Like, "Im going to kill you!" mad.

"I just think we should stick to the plan. What if you would have gotten lost? We all would have been seperated, you would have had to go back to camp, and Gabriella and I would have had to continue the quest without you. Why-"

"You're acting like my mom!" Jason said mom in a really bitter tone, so I quess that he wasnt just mad a me.

I let him continue down the alley for awhile and didnt speak while I followed him. After a few minutes of silence I asked in a quiet tone, "Do you miss her?"

"Who?"

"Your mom."

"..."

"Jason talk to me. I spent the first eleven years of my life in an ophanage without a mom or dad. And look at me now. In a safe place with friends, knowing one of my parents is an olympian god, but I dont know which. Im your friend. Tell me _somthing._"

For a second, I thought he was just going to walk away again. Then he sighed and said, "I miss her...kind of."

I let go of his arm. ''Is she...worried?" I asked, partly because I wanted to know, partly because I never had a mom and wanted to know if...well I dont know, but I just wanted to know!

"Yeah. I just used a Iris message to talk to her. She wants me to come home and not come back to camp. She thinks I'll be safer there. Look, I dont want to talk about this now. Can I tell you some other time?"

"Sure." I said with a smile, and we walked back to the "Camp" we had made in the ally. I aws suprised when we got there.

Gabriella stood with her pack full and slung over her shoulder. Jason's backpack was the same, sitting next to mine. There was no sign we had ever been there.

"C'mon, lets go." She said. Without a word, Jason and I grabbed our packs and set off.

Gabriella led the way. After a few hours of honking horns and dodging cars, we were in a nice little neighborhood full of two-story white houses with gardens out front. The sun was up and I was guessing it was late afternoon.

We continued walking till Gabriella stopped in front of a house on a quiet intersection. It had black shingles and shutters open, and the porch had a rocking chair on each side. There were yellow, red, andwhite roses planted in front of the sweet house. There was a white picket fence outlining the perimeter of the yard, with a neatly trimmed bush on the inside, and gate the connected to a stone walkway that led up the path to the house. It looked like you average, nice and quiet family house.

Gabriella opened the gate and help it open for me and Jason. We walked up the path and up the porch, where Gabriella knocked on the double-doors.

It took a minute, but soon a lady with long black hair tied in a braid over her shoulder opende the door. She was wearing jeans and a nice white sweater. She has some little freckles sprinkled across her face like cinnimon on whipped cream, and her eyes were a pale green.

Then she cried, "Gabriella!" and hugged Gabriella tightly. Gabriella hugged her back.

"Hey Susan." Gabriella said.

With a glance Susan said, "Come inside everyone. Im assuming this has to do with camp."

Now, dont get me wrong, I dont have a problem with white, but it seemed to me everything seemed a little to...clean.

The couch was cream colored with a plasma screen Tv on the wall in front of it. Not to mention the couch was in the shape of a half-circle. There was a ebony coffe table in front of it with some coasters stacked up, and a vase of lilys on it.

There was a black mirror on the wall, a beautiful sculpers around the room.

"You never told me you were rich," I whispered to Gabriella as we walked under a archway and into the kitchen. The cabnets were a glossy oak color, not to mention the table that sat eight people on the cool tile floor. Gabriella made us take off our shoes before coming inside the house. The stove and fridge were stainless steel. On the center of the table was a steaming bannana cream pie, next to a vase of red roses.

"Have a seat, please." Susan ushered us to the kitchen table. The seating arrangements were Jason, Gabriella, then me. We all took off our pack's and jackets and hung them on the backs of our chairs.

Susan got six glasses out of a cuboard, set one in each seat except for two on the other side of the table. Then she got a milk jug and poured milk into each glass, then set a plate in front of every place with a glass, an put a fork on each plate. When she was done she went into a room to the left and I heard her call, "Jake! Come on honey its time to eat!"

She walked back into the room, grabbed a knife, and started cutting the pie. "So, you're on a quest again Gabriella? Who are your friends?"

Gabriella pointed each of us out. "This is Alex, amd Jason."

Then a little boy wearing jeans and a red spongebob shirt with blond hair and green eyes walked into the room. He was about seven years old. And behind him, a man walked through the front door.

"Dad!" Gabriella and Jake said at the same time.


	17. Gabriella's Home

**Thanks everyone for being so patient. Next chapter!**

The man hugged Gabriella and Jake, the little boy. I nudged Jason. "I feel like some wacko intuder."

"Me too."

"Good."

Gabriella turned back to us with a huge smile plastered to her face. "Dad, this is Alex and Jason. Alex, Jason, this is my dad."

Gabriella's dad held out a hand to hus, while keeping an arm around Jake's shoulders. "Nice to meet you both. Just call me Mike."

"Hi Mike." I said.

Jason nodded and didnt say anything.

Everyone sat down, and Susan got everyone some pie. Then Gabriella started her story about how she met us, my prophecy, and everything that had happened in between a week ago a now.

When she was done, Jake asked me, "You really rode on a flying horse!?" His big blue eyes bugged.

"Yes I did Jake. Maybe if you parents say so somtime, Gabriella, Jason, and I could give you some lessons." I said sweetly back.

He grinned. "No way! That would be cooler then being Captain Underpants!"

We all smiled and laughed. I liked Gabriella's family. It was sweet, and nice. Like the way a normal family should be.

"So, you kids need to get to Arizona?" Susan asked.

Jason nodded. "As soon as possible. We dont have a time limit, but we dont know what we'll see in Arizona, or how long it will take us."

Mike pulled out his wallet. He rummaged through it till he pulled out a silver and gold Discovery credit card. He handed it to Gabriella. "I got this for you while you were at camp. When you go on a quest, I want you to be able to take care of yourselves."

We stayed a while after that. At the moment, Gabriella and I were putting Jake to bed, while Jason was helping Susan with the dishes and talking about sea animals. Turns out she was a marine biologist. Mike was in his study, looking at my prophecy.

Jake lied in bed, and I was sitting oppisate Gabriella, who was reading aloud the Little Engine That Could. By the time she was done, Jake was fast asleep, snoring softly in a cute little kid way. I wished my life would be as normal as his.

Gabriella turned out the light and we went downstairs. Gabriella and I would be sleeping on the couch, while Jason slept on the floor. The night passed by without a single nightmare. It was peaceful, and I liked it.

We woke up at five-thirty. I was absoloutly there would be lines under my eyes with the diffrent sleep schedule. I took a fast shower and changed into a pair of jeans and a gray and red t-shirt with my jacket. Gabriella left a note on the table. And we left.


	18. Dumb Mutt

**First off, this ones for Ailat (). Thanks. You reveiw told me how much I do suck cause the last chapter was a dud, and I didnt even update with an action filled chapter after that to make up for it. But I think I'll pass on the "evil, rabid, bloodthirsty vampire chipmonks".**

**Okay. I know, I know, you're seating there going, "Oh my freakin gods she actully updated! Somone mus have died!" So im gonna have to give you the usual. Sorry! **

**The top five reasons for not updating are:  
**

**1. School**

**2. Band**

**3. Chores**

**4. Writing so many freakin other chapters for my other stories. **

**Yeah, that one sucked.**

**5. Sleep deprivation.**

**Yeah, I know, im really yound, but I can have sleep deprivation too! My doctor told me if I didnt start going to bed earlier and getting more sleep she'd have to give me some pills and knock me out. Happy thoughts.**

**Okay, now that im done with the excuses, here the story!**

It was freezing outside. And when I say, freezing, I mean freakin cold!!!!

I had changed at Gabriela's house. I was wearing white sneakers, black pants, and a blue and white jacket. Some of my straight hair was pulled back in a clip.

"Im...c-cold," Gabriella stuttered, holding herself in a big hug.

I slowed down till I was next to her and said," I know."

Jason was in front of us, leading us to a Greyhound Bus Station to see how far we could get a ride to. He had tried to cheer us up after we had left Gabriella's house, but it just wasnt working out that way.

"This is s-stupid," she chattered. "Its s-supposed to be cold, but not t-this c-cold."

"I k-know."

Just then it started raining.

I stopped in my tracks, and looked up at the sky. We were in a parking lot by ourselves, so I didnt have to worry about mortals watching.

"What the heck is your problem?" I shouted at the sky. "Cant you leave us alone for Hades sake?!

Then came hair, and snow, and lightning.

"I-I think you made him mad, Alex." Jason said, walking over to me.

"Good," I mumbled.

"Not really. Thissss makessss our job a little harder." A voice said behind me.

We all whipped around to see two hellhounds and a snake woman there.

In a second I had a arrow notched, Jason had his sword, and Gabriella had her spear.

The snake woman laughed. "Foolssssss! You can come quietly, or be forccced. Itsss your choiccce."

"What do you mean?" Gabriella asked, hostility thickly coating her voice.

"What do you think, daughter of Athena? Who do you think sssent usss to get you?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Luke."

"Yesssss, daughter of Hermes."

"Whoa whoa whoa!" I said. "Back it up a minute! Did you just say im a daughter of Hermes?"

"Yessss. Didnt you know? I guesss the sstupid god isss ssstill uncaring."

So Hermes was my father. Alrighty then. Great way to find out. I mean seriously. Would you like it if one of your worst enemys just so happened to be your brother? Well, now my life pretty much sucked.

"Whatever." I said and shrugged my shoulders, aiming at one of the hellhounds. " I could care less." I lied.

"Sssso, you will not come quietly then? Sssshame. Attack!" The woman ordered the hellhounds.

Gabriella and I each had a hellhound. Jason battled the snake woman sword to sword.

I had an uneasy feeling that we were being watched. But I didnt have time to worry about it before the hellhound attacked. As it jumped at me, I shot an arrow, hitting it in the stomach. Before it turned to yellow dust, it swatted me with one of its claws across my arm, forcing me to the ground.

Jason and Gabriella finished about the same time I did. Gabriella had a scratch across her forehead and Jason had a cut on his leg, but other then that, we were good.

Jason and Gabriella walked over, giving me a hand up. "Dumb mutt," I growled at the ground, ment for the dog.

Gabriella laughed and Jason said, "Not much of a challenge." He sheathed his sword.

I put my bows away and Gabriella did the same with her spear. "Lets be thankful," she sighed.

"That wasnt your only challenge." Somone behind us said. As I whipped around, a thought went through my head. I was really sick of people who snuck up on us like that.

And I froze when I saw who it was.


	19. Life sucks, deal with it

**Hey guys, I am really sorry. My Grandpa just died, and I haven't been paying much attention to most of my stories like I should. So I promise to try and update more, seeing as how I'm getting on thin ice by not updateing.**

Percy, Grover, and two other girls I didn't know of stood behind us. Percy jerked his thumb over his shoulder and said, "We've got company." It was probobly only then that I noticed the monsters running toward us, or that we were all breathless.

Then, a big white van suddenly screeched to a halt behind Percy and his friends. A girl with brown hair and silver clothes rolled down the window and yelled. "Get in!". No one objected. We slid the door closed, and just in time too. The mosters all crashed into the door, and the driver floored it.

We ran over two hellhounds who immdeatly turned to dust. The driver swerved and jerked the steering wheel till she finally got on the highway.

"Who are these people?" The driver had a strage accent, like she was extremely old or something.

"Oh," Percy said. He introduced us all in about twenty seconds.

"Alex, Jason, Gabriella, were do you need to go? Well, it doesnt really matter, we'll be stopping in Florida in a few hours. You'll have to leave then." Zoe kept her eyes on the road.

"What?" Percy asked. "Why? You're just going to ditch them?"

"This is our quest, Jackson. And, you're not even supposed to be here. They have their own quest, and we can't interfere with that."

"Well, that just sucks," I said.

"Like sucks Alex. I have to save my mistress. Sorry."

So, sure enough, as soon as we got to Miami, Zoe kicked us out. So we stood on a sunny beach, dirty clothes, rats nests for hair, and scratches all over, and we didn't even have a place to stay.

"Well, we're pretty much screwed," Jason said.

"Yup." I added.

"Not really," Gabriella said, digging around in her pants pocket. I thought she had officially gone pycho until she pulled out the blue American Express credit card her dad had given her. "Lets go get some clothes."

I gaped at the credit card in Gabriella's hand. Growing up in a orphanage, we never had much money to splurge. Now, Gabriella was offering that we just go and spend money?

"I'm hooked," I said. "Lets go. And can we get some tacos while were at it? I need a taco."

"Ohh! Yeah!" Jason said. "Tacos sound awsome!"

"So, shopping first, then tacos?" Gabriella asked.

"Heck yeah!" Jason punched the air.

"Clothes! Food! Hallelujah!" I shouted.

For the next two hours, we bought everything in sight. Gabriella and I had decided to go to a spa while Jason went to a electronics store. So I walked out with my dark brown hair straight with a red streak in it, with a black t-shirt, jeans, strappy gold sandels, and a gray jean jacket. Gabriella was wearing a black skirt with a pink and red tank top and white jacket, and her blond hair had been gently waved, and we both had sunglasses in our hair.

"Gods Gabriella," I said with envy. "You look like a freaking supermodel. Its not fair."

"Hey, you're loking pretty good yourself. Dont worry." We smiled at each other then made our way to Taco Bell. Jason had ordered practiclly everything of the menu, and we ate most of it. The cashier was looking at us like we were some kind of mutant freaks. Which, we were, so we just totally ignored her.

Later, at sunset, we started walking along the beach with our shoes in hand. I had put my hair in a clip, and the breeze felt cool on my neck.

"Man," Jason said. "I wish we could just forget the quest and stay here for the rest of our lives."

"Yeah," Gabriella said. "This is the life."

For a sunset, the beach was pretty clear. No one was here except for a few seagulls and empty cars parked next to the sand.

"Is it just me, or is something not right?" I asked.

"Are you kidding?" Gabriella asked.

"Were in paradise, Alex. I haven't ate like that in years," Jason said.

"Yeah, neither has everyone else put together on the entire planet," I said, and Jason stuck his tounge out at me. I returned the gesture very childishly, which, coming from me, is not a suprise.

"No, I'm serious," I said after a few more minues of silence. "In a big city like this, on a beach like this, people should be here, but its deserted. We're the only ones here."

They were both silent as they let that sink in. Then Gabriella pointed farther down the beach where a bunch of big boats were docked. Lots of people were bustling around one ship in paticular. "Not there," she said. "Lots of people are down there."

"Yeah-," Jason started to say, but was cut off when his necklace started glowing. The sapphire turned a blinding color and slowly lifted of his chest and towards the sea.

"What the...?" He said.

Gabriella's and mine necklaces were glowing now too. Her pink gem was blinding, while my emerald had a dark glow to it.

Then somone behind us said, "Excuse us, kids? Were lost and we were wondering if you could help us."

Two big dudes with muscles the size of baseballs stood there. They had this glint in their eyes like they were hiding something.

"Um, were not from Miami," Jason said.

"Yeah," I said. "But theres got to be a directory around here somwhere. You could keep looking till you find that."

"No," the man on the right shifted his weight as if he were getting ready for a fight. "We really wanted you to help us."

Then the guys pulled out celestinal bronze daggers, and I knew they werent human. Before any of us could get our weapons out, the guys had taken clubs out from under the jackets and I was seeing black before I could say, "Hey man!"

___________________________________

My dream was pretty weird, as usual.

I had a dream of three doors in a dark hallway. Suddenly I was standing in the room on the right. It had white carpet and light red walls. There was white furniture, with pink occasionally dotting the image. Like the chair at the computer desk was pink. The white couch had pink pillows. And in the corner was a bed just like mine on the Princess Andromeda, except the frame was white and the bedding was pink. Asleep in it was Gabriella, the moonlight from the window pouring on her face.

Then, I was in the room on the left. This was theexact same replica, except it was blue and black, and less girlie. I could hear Jason snoring under the covers of his bed.

Then, I was in my room on the Princess Andromeda. And I was asleep in my bed, but there was a shadow crossing across the floor.

Then I woke up.

Light poured through a window. I was so comfortable, I didn't want to move. The bed was so soft...

Wait. What?

I shot up and looked around. Then with a sinking feeling, I recognized where I was. I jumped out of bed and crossed the room to the door, and tried opening it. It was locked.

And I was stuck on the Princess Andromeda in my room. Again.


	20. My foot has a mind of its own

**I only got one reveiw. Please reveiw!**

So, like anyone else, I tried the whole screaming-and-pounding-on-the-door-and-trying-to-break-the-door thing. And if you say, "Oh! I was kidnapped before, but I didn't try to leave!" Well, then, we've got problems.

I swear, the doors was freakin invincable. I hit it and kicked it and told it to open, but none of those things worked, even when I was sure they would.

So I sat on my bed and pouted. The only way they were ever going to let me off this ship was if I joined their army, and...

Bingo!

I could _pretend _to cooperate. I could get along with Luke, and eventully, they would trust me and let me off the ship. And by then, I might know some secrets about the ship and the army, and I could go to camp...aw man, I'm so freakin smart sometimes, it even scares me.

So, if I am going to do this, I might as well look like I don't care if I'm on the enemies ship. And, there was a mini bathroom, and I wanted to take a shower really bad. Like last time I was here, there was a closet full of clothes that all mysteriously fit me. Ah, the pushy hospitality of the Titan army.

I took a long shower and pulled on some jeans, boots, white t-shirt, and a black jacket. My hair was wavy today, so I didnt even bother trying to do anything to it.

Nobody came to let me out of my personal Hades palace. I tried the phone, but it was disconnected. Finally, around the evening, the door handle stared jiggling like somone was putting a key in it. I was so hopeful that there was some kind of eatable food behind that door that I was frozen with hope on my bed. I was layed back against the pillows with my ankles crossed and stared at the dor while finally a servant came in in a white suit and a rolly-thingy with food on it.

He rolled the thing next to my bed, set a envelope on the table, and left, but made sure to lock the door behind himself. Jee, I wonder how _you _would feel if you went a whole day without eating?! Maybe a little crabby! Oh...I wonder if they brought me crab.

I took the lid of the plate to see a bowl of macaroni and chesse with a water. Whatever. I took a fork and scarfed it down. Then I opened the letter. It said,

_Please excuse my incompetent staff. They do not know how to treat honorable guests. _

_Your Brother, Luke_

On the back, I wrote,

_Please excuse my foot up your butt. It seems to have a mind of its own somedays._

_Your Worst Nightmare, Alex_

I put it in the envelope, put in big letters across the front LUKE CASTELLEN, and put it beneath the crack under my door.

I laughed tro myself. "Take that, brother."

Yeah, I know, I'm crazy. So what? The world would be boring if we all followed the rules.


	21. Alex and cranky, two very bad things

**This one is for Proud Asian Weirdo Kid, who sounds kinda like my long lost sibling in her reveiws. Also, Aliat, who never fails to scare me into writing another chapter. And Jake the Drake, for giving me a fantabulus idea. It was all hers! Thank you all! Please no evil, rabid, bloodthirsty, vampire chipmonks!**

**Also, I noticed that I used to get lots of reveiws. Well, I now have to have five reveiws to update. That way I have an excuse when I don't update quickly. No pun intended.**

**AND! Yes, I know, you're getting tired of me and just want to read the story, BUT! Would you all pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty please read my story 'Angels' and reveiw it? I have, like, two reveiws. Its a Twilight/PJO crossover. And please don't lecture me how PJO is better then Twilight. I already know that. I'm just trying to make it better. No pun intended. I was kidding.**

**Also, this story is drawing to a close. Not in this chapter, but the ending is coming very soon. I'm not sure if I'm going to write a sequel or not, so tell me what you think.**

**Yay! The 21st chapter! My story is now old enough to leagally drink! **_**Awe**_**some!**

**~Hayden**

**________________________________**

The next day I slept until noon. But I mean, if you had stayed up all night practicing your punches and kicks on a door, you'd be knocked out too. Yeah, I know I said I was going to be good, but c'mon. Seriously man!

When I woke up, someone was pounding on my door, shouting, "I'M COMING IN!" Then the door burst open. A large dude in a suit came in and locked the door behind him, then turned to look at me. His name tag said, Hello! My Name Is, _Atlas _, And I'm Here To Help You!

I was lying in my bed, my hair in a messy clip, on my elbows, giving the guy death glares. I don't care if he was a Titan, I was tired. And when you have a cranky Alex, you have a bad day.

I could've said so many things. I could've laughed in his face. But instead I said, "Not cool, dude. Not cool at all." Then my head collapsed on my pillow and I tried to ignore the fact that somone was watching me and tried to sleep.

"Alexandria DeClaire, Luke Castellen wishes to see you. You are having a meeting with him personally, and then you are having a meeting with all your friends and some very important people on this ship."

"Which don't include you?" I asked.

Atlas sighed. "They told me you were like this. Glad to see they were true."

"Who's they?" I grumbled into my pillow, even though I honestly couldn't have cared less.

"I will tell you if you get up," Atlas goaded.

"Too stubborn," I mumbled.

"Too lazy," Atlas corrected.

"I'm sure your girlfriend would say the same about you." I smiled into my pillow.

Atlas sighed, then walked over and pulled the comfortable bed sheets off of me, then pulled me off the bed.

"Dude! Take a chill pill and relax yourself! I know I'm cute, but jeez! At least _try _to control yourself, man!" I protested as he put his hands on my shoulders and steered me onto the ship. He pushed me along the edge, and I would've jumped, but a fall like that probobly would kill me. And I just wasn't in the mood to die today.

He pushed me to a familiar place; the on-ship resturant that Jason and I had first ate dinner at. I smiled at the memory of us making plans to escape on the pegusus' that he stole. Those were the awesome days.

Luke was sitting at a table wearing khaki shorts, a white button-up shirt, brown flip-flops, and sunglasses. He was reading a book that said, _**Taking Over The World For Idiots**_. Well, _I_ thought the title fit.

"Luke," Atlas said, pushing me into a chair across Luke. He looked up from his book and pulled his sunglasses into his hair. He raised his eyebrows at my blue Bugs Bunny pajama pants and black tank top. I shrugged.

"Yes, Atlas?" He asked.

"Next time, send Thorn to do your dirty work. I'm not in the mood to deal with brats today."

"Funny, why don't you dump your girlfriend then?" I asked, then smirked. "Man, I am on a roll with these insults today!"

"I'll send Thorn next time," Luke promised, ignoring me.

"Good." Atlas shot me a glare, then walked away. I was surprised they left me ungaurded, 'cept for Luke.

"Go ahead," Luke offered, as if he read my mind. "If you jump, you die, and if you run, you still have to stay on the ship, and we'll eventually find you."

"Oh, joy!" I said enthusiasticly.

Luke rolled his eyes. "So, how's your stay on the Princess Andromeda?"

"Oh, you know, fine. The Internet access is down, but I've got a feeling that you're not going to fix that any time soon." I looked at him as he picked up a menu.

"Yeah, 'fraid not." Luke seemed to be totally fine with small chat. It was starting to bug me.

Finally, I said, "Okay Luke, what do you want?"

Luke looked up at me, looking surprised. "What, can't I spend time with my little sister?"

"Um, no. Besides, Atlas said this was a meeting."

"Ah, Atlas is always so formal. Ignore him. He's not used to not holding up the sky."

"Who _is _holding up the sky?"

"Well, if you really want to know, it's-,"

Luke was interrupted when the boat shook with a roar, and an alarm sounded, Red lights flashed, and people stood there, stunned, as if they were the people on the Titanic when they heard that the ship was sinking.

"What's going on?" I followed Luke as he got up and walked briskly toward some place.

"The ship...it's sinking?" It came out sounding more like a question then a answer.

Huh. How ironic.


	22. Fights, hippocampi, and Ariel oh my!

**Okay, once again, this chapter if Proud Asian Weirdo Kid, who made me laugh when I read her review five minutes ago. **

**Maybe that has something to do with the fact I haven't slept in the last thirty-two hours and im still not tired. God, I need sleep... So please excuse this chapter if it sucks. Keep in mind I did write this at two-thirty in the morning.**

**~Hayden**

**_____________________________________**

Somehow, someone had opened the doors for Jason and Gabriella's rooms. They had bags packed and I ran into them by the lifeboats.

"Ohmygosh! You'reokay!" Gabriella speed talked while quickly hugging me. I noticed the water was churning angerily, rocking the boat.

"Yes, joy, I actully have to live this miserble life. Thanks for reminding me. " I pretended like I was mad, but I was a bad actor when it came to my friends. "So, whats the game plan?"

"Uh . . . we thought you would have one," Jason said.

I stared at him. "Hey Jason?"

"Yeah?"

"You're an idiot."

"Ouch."

"Guys!" Gabriella cried. "Thisisnotthetimetobe-," she was cut off when a man, desperate to get to the lifeboats, pushed past Gabriella roughly. She lost her balence, and before anyone could do anything, she fell over the edge. A cold chill ran through me as her scream peirced the air. No one seemed to notice besides us.

Before I could stop him, Jason grabbed my hand and pulled me over the edge of the boat, concentrating. I wasn't sure if he was praying to his dad or if he just really had to use the bathroom. I yelled at him anyway.

"YOU'RE AN IDIOT!" I screamed, watching the water come closer and closer until I hit it. It didn't hurt me as much as I thought it would, but I'm not saying it was a total peice of cake either. Because as soon as I went completly under, I blacked out.

______________________________________

When I woke up, my eyes hurt, and all my movements were slow, as if I was dragging my arms through water. Rubbing my head, I sat up, then almost screamed. Because I _was _underwater. Yes, you heard me, UNDERWATER. Literlly, under the water. And it was kinda freaking me out. You wouldn't think that was possible by now.

I noticed that my clothes were dry, and that I could breathe. Funny, you would've thought that that would have been the first to cross my mind. There seemed to be a bubble around me that was just air. Anyway, the floor was, no duh, sand. The walls were made of cement with seashells and seaweed in them. I wonder how you get cement to mold in the ocean...I noticed that I was on a bed, too. Great, thats twice I've woken up on a bed related to water. It's sheets had a weird, damp feeling, like they had been soaked in water for all eternity. Well, no duh, I was in an _ocean_. Things happen to be wet down here.

Across the room, there was another bed, and on it was no other then Gabriella. She looked pretty pale, and her eyes had this yellowish color. Above her was a mermaid, with a green tail, and long red hair. She reminded me of that Disney princess/mermaid, Ariel. Except for the fact that this mermaid had on a black t-shirt, with big scary letters saying _SCREAM_, and a bunch of mermen with blood-red tails and hair spiked in ways that shouldn't be humanly possible. Then again, they weren't human, either.

"Uh...whats up, dude?" I asked, making the mermaid twirl round to face me. It would have been graceful, except that she looked like she wanted to murder me.

"Knock it off!" She hissed at me.

"What?" I squeaked. "Do I know you?"

She sighed impatiently. "My name is Ariel. NO, not from the movie. A fisherman saw me once, and based a movie off me. A few weeks later, he _accidently _got swallowed by a shark. Now shut up, I'm trying to watch my show."

I was speechless. I always had a good comeback, but I guess things change when you almost die and a mermaid snaps at you, telling you that she made a shark kill someone. Yeah, great day! Just lovin' life under the sea!

I waited five minutes, then said, "Whats wrong with Gabriella?"

Ariel pulled her eyes off the TV in the corner of the room, playing some kind of soap opera. "She fell twenty feet from the air and hit water. If Lord Poseidon wasn't the kind person he was, and hadn't answered Prince Jason's cries for help, then she would have died.''

"Prince Jason?" I snorted. "Thats funny. I'll have to tell him that one."

Ariel stared at me. "I am not kidding. Us mermads never kid."

"Maybe you're thinking of someone else. I'm talking about Jason Stroll."

"I know."

"So you're telling me that me best friend is a prince?"

"Yes."

"And that my other friend almost died?"

"Yes."

"And the mermaid Ariel likes a band named _SCREAM_?"

"Of course."

Woah. First I find out that Gabriella's rich. Then I find out that Jason is a prince. Of the sea. Prince of the sea. The sea. As in three quarters of the Earth. My best friend is the heir to three quarters of the freakin' world. That's a scary thought right there.

"Um...do you think I coulld maybe talk to him?" I asked.

"He is dining with his father, brother, and step-mother."

"I'm sure that if what you say about Poseidon is true, he won't mind."

Ariel sighed impatiently. "Fine. Follow me. But if you get turned into a bottle-nose dolphin, don't come crying to me," She said, leading me out of the room.

"Trust me, I won't," I promised under my breath. Thankfully, she didn't hear it. She led me through corridors with mer-men gaurding doors with spears and battle armor. Wow, they really take things seriously in Atlantis.

We went down a huge spiral staircase, and stood before two large double-doors. Ariel nodded to the four mer-men gaurding the doors, and they let us through. Ariel opened the doors and we stepped into what I guessed was the dining room.

The table was huge, even though there were only four people sitting there. At one end, there was oseidon, wearing a colorful shirt and tan shorts, and he looked like the spitting image of Percy with black hair, sea green eyes, and big smile. At the other end was who I'm assuming was Amphritrite, with blue eyes and long blond hair. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but like any other goddess, she made the outfit look like it should be on the red carpet. Jason was on one side, and Poseidon's other son, Triton, with blond hair and two fish-tails. That's gotta suck when you're trying to find jeans that fit.

There was a conversation going on, so no one noticed that I was there until I stood right next to Jason.

"Oh, hey Alex," he smiled at me. He was acting like it was the most natural thing to be in water.

"So you're the great Alex DeClaire?" Poseidon smiled at me. "It's nice to finally meet the person who will decide the fate of the world."

"Uh...right. You too. Um, Jason, can I talk to you outside for a minute?" I asked.

"Oh...well...I'm kinda right in the middle of ea-," He stopped talking when I grabbed his ear and pinched it really hard.

"That wasn't a question," I muttered to him.

"Er...Dad? Do you mind?" Jason squeaked.

Poseidon leaned back in his chair with a large smile on his face. "Go ahead, Jason."

I pulled him out of the room and through some doors until we were in a empty hallway.

"Ow, what?" Jason asked, swatting my hand away amd rubbing his ear.

"WHAT?? Are you kidding me?! Jason Stroll, if you werent imperative to the fate of the world, I would kill you!"

"Why?!" He asked.

I was at a loss for words. I tried gesturing to the walls around me, but he just didn't seem to get it.

"We. Are. Under. Water."

"I know."

"Would you like to explain to me how thats possible?"

"Well, Dad put a sheild around you and Gabriella so that you guys can breathe and stuff."

I know that Jason! But why is he helping us? Last time I talked to you about it, you weren't exactly Daddy's little boy!"

"I knew that this would happen..." Jason muttered.

"What? You knew what would happen?" I dared.

"That you wouldn't like this! You're always so judgemental! And you're jealous that my Dad actully cares about me!"

Those words stung. I couldn't believe he had actully went there. But he wasn't done yet.

"You do't like the fact that I helped on YOUR prescious quest! You're mad that you didn't think of everything good on this trip! Without me, Gabriella would be dead!"

"But what about Poseidon? We don't need him," I said.

"No, YOU don't need him. But he's my dad. I do need him. And if you can't understand that, then...then I shouldn't be on this quest with you, and we shouldn't be friends."

"We can't be friends. Not if you think that I think you don't need your dad. You go back to your dad. He needs you in his life. You know what?" I took a deep breath. "I don't."

"THAT feeling is mutual. Some hippocampi are waiting outside for you guys." With that, Jason stormed off.

I stood there, angry, sad, and feeling so hopeless that I wanted to breakdown and cry. I did cry, but it's not like anyone could see. I was already underwater.

Eventually, a hand clamped down on my shoulder. I turned around to see Gabriella carrying our bags with both of her bandaged arms. I took more then my fair share, and we made our way to the front of the palace.

Once we were on the hippocampi heading up, Gabriella turned to me. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No. Let's just get out of here."


	23. Stealing horses from random people

**Come on, people. NO REVEIWS! I kinda need to know if you want a sequel. I'm not going to write it if no one wants to read it. I could make a ham sandwhich and watch a new episode of, 'Heroes' in that time. So tell me! You don't even have to reveiw. PM me if you want a sequel. Each way works. Doesn't matter.**

**~Hayden**

**P.S. I've never been to Oceanside, so I have no idea what it's like. If you live there and it looks nothing like how I described it, sorry. No offense was intended.**

**Disclaimer: Ariel is not my charecter! She belongs to HorseyGal23, so all credit goes to her! **

We washed up in a place called Oceanside, California. It was a small town, but it was cool all the same. You could see it from the water, and the shops were cute. Gabriella and I bough some jeans, sneakers, t-shirts, and jackets since ours were all wet and it was getting a little cloudy. I eventually told Gabriella about Jason, and she didn't seem surprised.

"Well," She said. "It's not like best friends never fight. Usually, if you're best friends, you're a little diffrent. And diffrences can tear people apart sometime. I just wish that you wouldn't have left without him and he wouldn't have stayed with his dad. We kind of need him."

I sighed. "Yeah, I guess we do."

Gabriella picked at the quilt on her bed. We were staying in a sweet little motel at the edge of town. It was dark out, but neither of us could sleep.

"Tomorrow could be it," I said. "We might find him."

Gabriella nodded. "I know. I hope it's not too hard to get to him and take himback to camp. We've had enough trouble for a lifetime."

"I don't think it'll be that easy. Half-blood quests are never supposed to be easy." My face was smashed into a pillow, so I don't know if Gabriella heard me right.

"Lets just hope so," she said, turning off the light and laying down. After a minute, she asked, "Are you scared?"

"Jeez Gabriella. You're just like Dr. Phil." My tone was teasing, but really, I just didn't want her to now that I was.

The train ride was about five hours, and then we were standing outside the train station, wondering what to do next.

"So..." I said awkwardly.

"This wasn't the best plan." Gabriella shook her head and reajusted her backpack strap.

"Not exactly. Should we head north?"

"I don't know..."

"Gabriella! I don't even know which way is East or West! I just know that way is north!"

Gabriella looked at me quiziclly. "Then how do you know which way is North?"

"There's a sign."

"Oh."

We headed North, but soon got ourselves lost. We went into this forest at one point to try and find moss, but the forest was dry, and everything looked dead.

"We are sooo lost," I stated.

"We're not lost!" Gabriella said, looking at a useless map. "We're just...exploring."

"Yes," I said. "Exploring places that we have never even seen before."

"I've seen this place before." I could see the doubt in her face.

"Oh, yes! I recognize that dead tree! It looks so much more dead then all the others!"

"Do you always have to be so negative?"

"Yes. I was born that way."

Just then we heard a snap. We both stopped. It was kind of hard for me, because my foot was in the air, and I had terrible balence. A hydra suddeny walked into the clearing. I knew it had really bad eyesight but excellent hearing and smell, so I tried as hard as I could not to move. Gabriella was doing the same, but she had two feet on the ground.

My leg burned, and I bit my lip, trying to scare myself into standing still. Hades will throw you in the Fields Of Punishment if you get Gabriella killed. You'll never save the orld and everyone will die. Or if you live and Gabriella dies, you'll have to live with the guilt and without you're best friend. Or...if you die now, you'll never be able to eat another taco again.

That was a bad thought to think. I was so horrified, I gasped out loud. The hydra looked up at us and hissed, sending poison puddles toward our faces. Since Gabriella and I prefer to not have our faces burned off, we ran. I could hear the thing coming after us, so I ran harder.

After a few minutes, we broke into a clearing. There was a corral and some stables, and a girl was there with two saddled up horses. I didn't know what she was doing with two horses, but I was thankful for it as we ran over to her.

"We need your horses," Gabriella gasped.

"Excuse me?" The girl asked as if she was offended. She tossed her glossed black hair off one shoulder and studied us with green eyes. With a pang of sadness, I noticed that she looked a lot like Percy and Jason.

"Who are you?" I asked, breathing heavily and looking over my shoulder.

"A complete stranger." She shook her head but held out her hand. "I'm Ariel."

I groaned internally. "Please tell me your name isn't based off the mermaid!"

Gabriella looked at me like I was crazy, but Ariel shook her head. "Heck no! I hate that comparison!"

Thank you, Zeus!

"Look, I'm Gabriella, and this is Alex, and we really, really, really need your horses."

Ariel looked uncertain, glancing at her horses. "My mom would kill me..."

"Yes, and we're about to get killed!" I shouted at her. She looked at me with wide eyes. "I promise we'll bring them back!"

"Fine," she said, handing us the reins. We quickly scrambled into the saddles and took off straight into a gallop.

"Thank you!" I shouted over my shoulder. Ariel stood there in the middle of the ring, looking surprised and confused. Then she took off to a big white house nearby. I didn't feel about leaving her with the hydra. Monsters won't attack mortals, and she was a mortal, right?

We ran, and before long, we couldn't go farther. Not because the horses were tired, but becasue we standing on a cliff. Below us stood a canyon, with a small stream and lots of rocks. For some reason, that looked like the right way to go. After exchanging a look with Gabriella, I could see she felt the same. We sent the horses in the direction we came, and the seemed to know how to get back to their home, taking a nice stroll.

"Okay," I said, putting my hands on my hips. "So, how do we do this?"

"Um...I believe we climb." Gabriella got down on one knee and started tying her sneakers really tight.

"What?" I asked, looking at the wall we would have to climb. There were more then plenty of places to put your feet and hands, but still...it was a long fall. "Haven't you read a book about hitting a cliff with a bat and making a slide that leads to the bottom or something?"

"Um, no," Gabriella laughed. We re-tied our shoes and tied our jackets around our waists and started the climb. Hey, thats a song!

I won't bore you with the details of how many times we almost fell, how freaked out we were, or how hard it was. I'll just tell you we were probobly the most releived people on the planet at that moment. We collapsed on the dirt and just layed there.

"I want to curl up in a ball and die," I gasped, trying not to be to negative.

Gabriella crawled over to the water and put her hands in. "Alex, come here! It's freezing! I love it!"

We put our hands, feet, arms, and legs in the water, being careful not to get our clothes wet. After a while, we got up, put our socks and shoes back on, and continued down one side of the canyon. It was getting really windy, and the sky seemed to get super-dark. We eventually were so cold, we put our jackets on. I began to regret putting my hands and feet in the stream.

The canyon walls seemed to rise up farther and farther until I could barely see what was up there like bushes and stuff. We werent walking on dirt anymore, but sand, and the river had turned into a valley so that I could only put my foot in there.

Fianlly, we came to s stop. A large stone wall was in front of us. We stared at it for a minute.

"Either we're camping here, or something kills me now, because I'm not walking all the way back there." I crossed my arms.

"Alex, this wall...can't you feel it?" Gabriella asked.

I stared at her. Had this quest just now gotten into her head? Was she breathing in too much sand? But then I felt it. There was like a pull in the pit of my stomach, pulling me to the wall.

"Maybe there's a lever...or something," Gabriella said, almost muttering to herself. I could see the gears turning in her head. I ran my hand along the wall, and surprisingly, it didn't feel rough. I feel damp and soft and just like...water.

"Gabriella, check this out!" I said, and she touched the sand.

She stared at it for a minute, then said, "Do you have anything that Jason has touched?"

I dug around in my bag then found something that even had Jason's smell...the Twinkies. I handed them to her, and she pressed them against the wall. I was about to ask when the ground started shaking. I scrambled back as something started to come out of the wall. It was small peice of hard packed dirt, exactly the sice and shape of a CD case. Gabriella pressed the Twinkies on the dirt, and slowly, a blue circle appeared in front of it.

Next, we found Gabriella's. It was on the far right side, and it felt like books. Figures. She just put her hand against it, the platform slid out, and she pressed her hand against that. A pink circle, the same color as her necklace, appeared above.

Mine was in the middle. It just felt like dirt. Thats probably because my dads Hermes, jack of all trades. After pressing my hand against the platform, a green ring stood out. The wall started shaking, and we backed up a few feet. The sand and dirt seemed to melt off of the wall, revealing a tall doorway. So tall that we couldn't see over it.

"Alright," Gabriella said. "Lets do this."


	24. Um, yeah, you're my WHAT?

"So..." I said, staring at the big double doors in front of me and Gabriella.

"So." She said, staring as well.

"What do we do?"

"I don't know."

"But you always know."

"Because my mom is Athena."

"I know."

"Good for you."

Silence. Where is Jason when you need the guy?

"Do we just open the door?"

"Not at all Alex, I thought we would just ring the doorbell. 'Oh, by the way, we're on this quest fighting demons and trying to save this long lost hero that's supposed to help us save the world. Do you think we might be able to take a shower?' I'm not sure they'd like that."

"We don't even know if it's a they." After thinking about it, I added, "A shower would be nice though."

"Yeah, it would." Gabriella said wistfully, going up to the door a knocking very lightly. It seemed to echo throughout the canyons, but nothing happened. She looked scared to knock again.

"Oh, for Pete's sake," I said, walking up and pushing the door open; we stared in awe at what we saw.

It was a completely black staircase winding down, with no torch light, just complete blackness. It seemed more than eerie, it seemed like the grudge was going to come up and eat us.

"That looks like _so _much fun." Gabriella started wringing her hands together.

"Right, well, I guess we should go down these stairs."

"Alex, that's what stupid people do in the horror movies."

"I know," I said, stepping into the darkness. "It fits my situation perfectly."

The walk wasn't nearly as long as it was frightening. But when we got to where we were supposed to be, man, was it worth it.

The stairs led down into a huge grand room that looked like it belonged to a picture in a storybook. The grand ceiling that had to be as tall as the empire state building was held up by gleaming silver pillars. A grand piano was located at the end of the room, next to four thrones located at the top of a platforn that was led to by carpeted red stairs. It looked kind of like a Russian ball room, held for extravagant dances.

I could imagine it filled with ladies in beautiful ball gowns and tiaras, with men dressed in suits and clothes that matched their country's dress code. It was almost as if I had been here before.

"Alex," Gabriella said. Her voice sounded constricted and scared.

"What's wrong, Gabi?" I asked, placing a hand on her arm.

"Does this place feel familier to you?" She asked me. Her eyes were focused on something at the end of the hall, and I watched as the color drained from her already pale face.

"Well, sort of. Why?" I asked.

"We've been here before. All of us."

"What are you talking about Gabriella? Are you okay?" I could hear the panic in my voice as her knees started to shake.

"Look, Alex," She whispered, pointing at the end of the hall, above the thrones.

Looking was the worst thing I ever could have did. It wasn't a monster, a demon, a zombie. It was a painting.

All four of us were in it. Jason, who was probably five or six. He looked cute as a kid, not chubby at all with a clearly defined jawline, and bright eyes. Next to him was me, with my long brown hair curled in those princess curls that I only could have had perfected as a four-year old, with random pieces of it pulled back into a clip. My eyes were greener then I've ever seen them, and a bright smile lit up my face. Gabriella stood next to me, straight brown hair in a ponytailwith a shy smile and sparkling gray eyes, and she looked the exact same age as me, four.

In front of us was a baby on a table about two, with super blond hair and bright blue eyes. His chabby hands were intertwined with Gabriella's and Jason's, and he was on a baby chair right in front of me.

You could tell the painting had been done by and artist, but it still looked extremely realistic. But the part that scared me was that Jason was wearing a crown, while Gabriella and I were wearing little diamond tiaras. We both wore blue dresses with sashs that held bagdes and medals, and jason wore the same except in a suit.

"That's...that's impossible," I stuttered. "I lived in an orphanage, I went into Foster Care."

"Obviously not all the time," Gabriella whispered.

"Why would they lie?" I asked. "What could they gain from that?"

"Um, you're not supposed to be here, a voice called out across the room. It was so large, the words reflected off the walls, echoing for minutes. A young boy about two years younger then me and Gabriella stepped out from a door by the thrones. He was pale, short, and super-skinny, with big bright blue eyes and glasses; the boy in the painting.

"Let me guess," he said as he walked up to us, and glanced back at the painting. "You," he said, pointing at Gabriella, ''Are Gabriella, I am Eli, and you are Alex," he said, pointing at me.

"Damn straight, skinny," I said. Gabriella's eyes widened and she elbowed me in the ribs.

"Why?" Eli looked at me.

"Because!" I said.

"You hate me because..?"

"Because!"

"You're not supposed to start a sentence with because," Eli pointed out.

"You can't be Eli! Eli is supposed to be great, big, strong, handsome, OLDER THEN TWO!" I said. How the hell are we going to defeat a titan army with a skinny little kid?

"I'm twelve," Eli said, sounding genuinly insulted. "And you shouldn't talk to me like that."

"Why not?"

"You're my sister," Eli said.


	25. My albino royal pain

**Thanks for the reveiws...sorry it takes so long for me to update. I'm trying not to be one of the people who has a somewhat good story but never updates and sort of fades from Fanfiction...**

**Opened - Window - I am a VEGETARIAN, so no mention of meat on this poor story! Haha, just kidding...not about the vegetarian part, though.**

**Bookits - Why, thank you! I appreciate that very much. And I love your name(:**

**WhisperMaw - I guess she did! I kept going back to look at the prophecy like, twenty times for this chapter. I cannot seem to remember ANYTHING today. **

**365. Pages. Of. Awesomeness - Oh hey, no problem! A reveiw is good, even a late one(: And that's a good thing you want a second book...I have tons of ideas I can't cram into the one! I guess that's good though.**

**~Hayden**

**I feel terrible...I can't even remember how old Alex is...**

**I realize there's a bit of rambling, but it explains a lot! So no matter how painful and not flowy ( Opened - Window, cough cough) please read! Thanks :)**

I stared at Eli for a moment, looking in those bright blue eyes. We looked absloloutly nothing alike, talked in different mannerisms, had different attitudes, and hell, he even had an _accent! _Did he seriously believe he could sell me the, 'We're related' crap?

"Ok," I drawled slowly. "We're siblings. You're mentally insane. Simple."

Eli sighed. "Seriously, you're not that bright, are you? We have the same father."

I clapped a hand to my head. "No, we really, really don't."

"Eli," Gabriella said. "If you had the same father, your father would be the greek god Hermes."

"No, my father is not Hermes. And neither is yours," Eli said, looking at me. "It's Nicholas. Nicholas the Great."

"Can I hit him?" I asked Gabriella.

"No. That'd be considered child abuse."

Eli sighed. "We don't have the same mother, though. You may know yours, Artemis."

Now Gabriella even seemed to be losing patience. "Okay, Eli, believe what you want to, but the prophecy we're following speaks of kind of an unsure fate, so if we could just move on, that'd be great-,"

"No. Listen," Eli said. "This is our palace. This is where our father lived with us, and his other family. He was a great King, and we were his most important children, granted we were half-bloods. We had a stepmother, Queen Anna, and three older siblings - the oldest, a set of twins, Alexi and Angelo. Then was Vivian, our older sister, you, Alex, then me. You were only...what, three? Four, maybe? I was just a baby.

"But anyway, your mother Artemis. You've heard some of the tales, haven't you? Before she became an eternal goddess, when she was young and had a good relationship with Zeus, she asked for certain things. Always be a virgin, have lots of names to be set apart from Apollo, to be a light-bringer, to be able to hunt, ect. Well, eventually, she _did _fall in love with a man named Orion."

"Didn't Orion die?" I asked impatiently, putting my hands on my hips. "Didn't she hate him 'cause he kept hitting on her Hunters, or something like that?"

"Love and hate build a strong relationship," Eli sighed, like he was a thousand years old, instead of like, ten. "But yes, Orion did die. Apollo was protective of his sister's maidenhood, so he sent a scorpian to kill Orion. Well, Poseidon, his father granted him one last wish; to someday see Artemis again, in real life.

"It took hundreds of years, but finally, thirteen years ago, Poseidon granted Orion his wish. Nicholas, our father, had given Poseidon permission to let Orion use his body as a host, where he then tracked down Artemis. Yes, she is still the goddess of virginity and everything, but the way they had you was the way Athena has her kids - through thoughts and memories. A few days after Orion left this world for good, you were given to Nicholas, considering you were born through his body and Orion's mind - it's like you have two fathers, almost.

"It wasn't intentional, you being born, but it happened. And you're lucky you're a girl. If you'd have been a boy, Artemis probably would have killed you, or tossed you off a mountain. But anyway, that happened, and then Nicholas fell in love with Demeter and had me. The end."

"What about the one chick? Nicholas's wife or whatever?" Gabriella asked.

"Anna? The _Queen? _She was powerful, sure, but she was competeing with goddess's for Nicholas's attention. He never was unfaithful after me, and they settled their differences and were a happy couple ruling over their kingdom." Eli said.

"Yeah? And where is the rest of this family now?" I asked. Surprisingly, Eli's story wasn't hard to believe. I was actually trying to prove him wrong.

Eli looked a little upset. "Honestly, they didn't tell me. All I got was...and this was almost three years ago, so you know...a vacation home in Siberia."

"Siberia...as in..." Gabriella looked at me.

"You mean we're in Russia?" I asked.

Eli nodded.

Things got a whole lot complicated after that.

Me and Gabriella took turns ansking questions.

"Why'd they leave a nine year-old alone in a palace?"

"I'm very mature."

"Where's the vacation home?"

"I don't know."

"Did you ever look for them?"

"I would if I knew where to begin."

"Where'd all the servants and what-nots go?"

"No idea."

"Is that your accent? Russian?"

"Yes."

"Did you actually know them? Nicholas, Anna, and them?"

"Very well. They were my family."

"DO YOU EVER TALK IN ANYTHING BESIDES A MONOTONE? You freak!"

"You're quite mean. And no."

"Woah. Your eyes. They are quite vibrantly blue. I never noticed that before."

"We're all getting a little off-track, ladies."

The questions were interuppted by the ground shaking. Luckily, the palace was only covered in dust and white sheets, so everything was good except for almost dying of an asthma attack from the dust.

"Okay, Gabriella." I said. "I just want to get back to camp, so if you could use your amazing memory and tell the little freak the prophecy, that'd be great."

"Right," Gabriella said. "Okay. First line, _A barren land the jeweled three must find."_

_"_Arizona has been located by three jeweled freak children. Next."

"_There a palace uncovered by a daughter of mind."_

_"_Gabriella was being a show-off, yes. Next."

Gabriella shot me a glare before continuing. "_The boy least expected is the one you seek."_

"I definitly wasn't expecting some pale, albino, twelve year-old. Next."

_"Take him away whether he be rich or meek."_

"Sons of Kings are normally rich. And he does look a little gangly. Next."

"_Tunnels through the ground the boy will create._

_If It's a trick discovered, it is your fate._

_Beware of the Onyx, don't give it your trust._

_For returning to camp is a definite must."_

_"_And there is our slight problem!" I announced.

"I have to create tunnels? Easy enough," Eli said, walking down a patch of random stairs off to the side.

"You know how?" Gabriella asked, sounding astounded.

"I've been living on my own for three years," Eli scoffed. "With absoloutly no TV or books that I haven't already read. I had to do something, and practicing some unknown power my father had been telling me about since I was two seemed like a good idea."

Gabriella sighed. "You're brilliant. Why can't you be my brother instead? It doesn't make sense you're Alex's brother."

"Uh, gee. Thanks, sunshine," I scoffed.

Gabriella smiled at me. "Anytime."

Eli stopped at a random oak door and stepped through it. Inside, it should have been a wine cellar, but a massive hole with ragged edges had been torn through the ground.

Eli led the way through the tunnels, occasionally pointing out places where he had made mistakes or improvments, until he faltered in mid-sentence.

Gabriella furrowed her eyebrows and put a hand on Eli's shoulder. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Eli mumbled, looking into the dark tunnel. "But...this is supposed to be where I stopped at last week. It shouldn't be going on."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "Maybe you just remember it wrong. I mean, it's all rock. It all looked the same to me so far..."

"No," Eli said. "I have a photographic memory. This is where I stopped."

"Well, that's not safe. Maybe we should just,"

Gabriella was cut off by a moan coming from the darkness. It sounded painful. And human.

I broke into a run. Something about the voice was familiar...

I didn't even realize that I had stopped when I got to the cavern. I didn't realize Gabriella and Eli almost running into me. I didn't realize we were in a dome-shaped hole cut into the underground, or that tiny branches of tunnels wove through the walls. Not when I saw the body lying in the middle of the floor, covered in blood.

I didn't realize, because the body belonged to Jason.


End file.
